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I am pleased to introduce to you Ms. Latha Menon, the new editor of INTERNATIONAL HUMANIST NEWS. Latha has eighteen years of experience in the UK as an editor of books, magazines, and CD-ROMs; most notably she has directed for eight years the intellectual development of the World English Edition of Encarta Encyclopedia, the international bestseller. We are very pleased that someone of Latha's background and dedication to humanism will take on the task of producing the IHN regularly.

 

If you were among the 350 humanists from 34 countries who assembled in the Netherlands to celebrate 50 years of the IHEU, or if you had followed the live broadcast of the Congress on the Internet, or if you had watched the three TV broadcasts on Channel 1 of Dutch national TV, you will of course know how exciting it was to be at the IHEU's 50th anniversary Congress. Several contemporary issues were discussed and debated, as the Congress report in this magazine - as well as the more detailed version on the IHEU's website - will show.

 

The IHEU has a unique role to play in the modern world, and the IHEU's new Executive Committee met in the thousand-year-old Chateau de Beduer in the South of France in October to brainstorm ways and means to strengthen the only international umbrella organisation for humanists, rationalists, atheists, secularists, agnostics and ethical culturists. Several targets have been drawn up which include acquiring an international permanent headquarters for the IHEU. At this first such international meeting to be held in the Chateau's impressive Grande Salle since 1410, IHEU's Action Plan for 2003 was drawn up, and our five-year Strategic Plan Document was updated: these will soon be circulated to the the IHEU General Assembly which will meet in mid-May 2003 in Washington DC hosted by the American Humanist Association.

 

Since the Congress, the IHEU has also firmed up plans for its Humanist News Portal on the Internet, worked on the relaunch of social work activities, and also continued its lobbying work for Dr. Shaikh's release. There has also been a prestigious International Colloquium organised by the French Freethinkers under the aegis of the IHEU on the theme of 'separation of religion and state'. This Colloquium effectively kicked off the preparation for the 2005 World Humanist Congress in Paris, which will also be principally on the theme of separation of religion and state.

 

Babu Gogineni