Extracts from IHEU’s Annual Report for 2002<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

2002 – A Year of Celebration

Reflecting IHEU’s stature as the world’s only umbrella organization embracing humanist, atheist, rationalist, secularist, skeptic, laïque, ethical culture, freethought and similar organizations worldwide, IHEU’s grand 50th anniversary celebrations included a World Humanist Congress in the Netherlands (All Different, All Equal with participation of the Dutch prime minister) which brought together 350 Humanists from 34 countries, an International Youth Conference (Empowering Youth within the Humanist Movement) with 45 participants from 16 countries, a 50th anniversary General Assembly with an unprecedented participation of nearly 100 Humanists from 34 countries, the publication of a Jubilee Book (IHEU, Its Past, Present and Future), creation of an online World Humanist Congress, revamping of the organization’s website, and the issuing of the 2002 Amsterdam Declaration on Humanism.

 

Campaigning: At the Front Lines

The worldwide campaign by IHEU and its member organizations to save Dr. Younis Shaikh, convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to death in Pakistan, is well known. IHEU added its international Humanist voice to those in Nigeria calling for the release of young women condemned to death for ‘immorality’ – significantly, it was in Nigeria that IHEU launched the campaign against fatwas, at a time when this most populous African nation was beleagured by religious rioting and fatwas calling for death to journalists. IHEU also defended the right of Humanist Shahriar Kabir in Bangladesh, unfairly arrested on charges of sedition for supporting minority rights. IHEU participated in the picket outside the Indian High Commission in London against the genocidal killings of 2000 Muslims in India, and offered support to the artist Dorota Nieznalska, being prosecuted by the Polish authorities on charges of blasphemy.

 

New Vistas and the Challenges Ahead

In several parts of the world religious fundamentalism is on the rise, intolerance is raising its ugly head, superstition is making a comeback and debilitating poverty persists. The modern world still suffers from ancient tyrannies: political, economic, cultural, and religious. For Humanism to be a way of life for everyone everywhere, Humanists need to use, as IHEU’s Amsterdam Declaration 2002 states, ‘free inquiry, the power of science and creative imagination for the furtherance of peace and in the service of compassion’. That remains IHEU’s mission and purpose.

 

IHEU’s Annual Report for 2002 was presented to the GA by outgoing President Levi Fragell on behalf of the EC. A full version covering IHEU’s Growth and Development, conferences in France and Greece, international networking, youth activities, IHEU’s work at UN, UNICEF, UNESCO and the Council of Europe is available. Requests must be emailed to IHEU.