I was delighted to have the opportunity at the hugely successful 16th World Humanist Congress in Paris to honour three great Humanists, each of whom has made an outstanding contribution over many years to the promotion of humanist ideas and values.

Jean-Claude Pecker is a distinguished scientist, a member of the French Legion of Honour, a former President of the International Astronomical Union, and a stalwart Rationalist and Humanist. The breadth of his interests, the depth of knowledge and his ability to communicate are legendary: a worthy recipient of the International Humanist Award for 2005.

Barbara Smoker was for many years President of the UK National Secular Society. A woman of acerbic wit, she takes no prisoners. Her books: Freethoughts and the recently re-issued Humanism are an absolute delight. She once memorably described the late and unlamented Mother Teresa of India as a "sacred cow". Equally memorably, in a broadcast debate with a Catholic bishop in which he described artificial insemination for a lesbian woman as "morally wrong", she asked why a bishop of the Catholic Church would have a problem with the idea of a virgin birth.

Marius Dees de Sterio began his long association with IHEU many years ago as a member of International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organisation">IHEYO. He has served as the IHEU representative at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg for over 20 years, has been Rapporteur of the NGO Liaison committee at the Council of Europe and has spoken on numerous occasions in the Council on Human Rights and other issues. He has been a recipient of the prestigious Pro- Merito Award of the Council of Europe for publicising their work in the media.

The Congress highlighted again the extent to which all Humanists, from whatever continent, face similar problems. The religions that oppose Secularism and Humanism may differ, but our struggles are the same: against superstition and oppression, and against the efforts of organised religion, often with the backing of the state, to silence all and any opponent. Many of us left the Congress with a renewed appreciation that separation of religion and state is the only reliable foundation for true democracy.

Another abiding message from the Congress was the need for Humanism to become more visible and more vocal, and for us to communicate better - even among ourselves. Many of IHEU's recent achievements came as news to many of the Congress delegates. They should not have done. Over the past 50 years Humanism has developed into a fully-fledged ethical and rational alternative to religion, yet organised Humanism still remains virtually unknown. One positive result of the Congress was a new resolve to radically improve our communications, and to do a better job of telling the world what all of us - IHEU as well as our member organisations - are doing.

Islamic States in denial

We were aware that we were putting our heads above the parapet last year when we raised the question of human rights abuse under Islam at the UN Commission for Human Rights in Geneva. Our efforts - to persuade the Commission to recognise and condemn the religious dimension of much human rights abuse - continued in April this year with a conference, "Victims of Jihad", jointly organised by IHEU, the Association for World Education and the Association of World Citizens. The conference featured many well- known opponents of radical Islam such as Ibn Warraq and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. We followed up in July with a series of written submissions to the Sub-Commission on Human Rights (a panel of supposedly independent experts) based on the conference presentations. The reaction was swift and vicious. Members of the Sub-Commission attempted to silence our spokesman at the plenary of the Sub- Commission. We delivered a formal complaint to the chairman, but Pakistan's ambassador responded with a speech on behalf of the 56 member states of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in which he accused the three NGOs of "abusing the Sub- Commission" and of "packaging their crass propaganda as scholarly research in their bid to spread hatred against Muslims". We reacted to this outrageous slander by issuing a detailed response. (See www.iheu.org/uncampaign for a full report).

I find it disappointing, but somehow not surprising, that even an organisation like IHEU, in the forefront of defending freedom of religion and belief, can be subject to such abuse for raising an issue of legitimate international concern. The Islamic States do have a problem: they are stuck in a time-warp of outdated beliefs enforced by rigid and often barbaric laws. Because they cannot challenge our facts they are obliged to resort to intimidation and abuse of the messenger. They speak of "initiating dialogue between civilizations". But no dialogue will be possible until they face up to the fact that Muslim terrorists are killing innocent people in the name of Islam.

Ceremonies

I lost an old friend this week. She was 80 years old and had led a full and colourful life. She was a painter of real talent, and the kind of person that people turn to in trouble. She had time for everyone. I was not surprised when she told me, just before she died, that she wanted a Humanist funeral. Providing such ceremonies is one of the really meaningful services that organised Humanism can provide, and a major step in building a Humanist community. Many Humanist organisations already organise ceremonies for weddings, funerals, baby welcoming and coming of age. More could do so. It would also help silence the criticism, too often heard, that the only thing the Humanist movement cares about is "bashing religion".

Roy Brown
IHEU President