Iceland is an island nation in the North Atlantic with an affluent population of nearly 305,000. It is a modern democratic republic which prides itself on its human rights orientation. However, it still has a state church, the Evangelical Lutheran church. While on paper 84% of Icelanders are members of the state church, on any given Sunday no more than 2-4% of the population attends church.

The number of Icelanders who attend church once a month is 8%. Public surveys in recent years consistently show that two thirds of Icelanders are in favor of separation of state and church.

Our Main Struggle

The main struggle Sidmennt has been engaged in since it was formed in 1990, is a human rights issue. We want the same legal status for our Humanist life stance organization as religious organizations have in Iceland. Members of Sidmennt are forced to pay a church tax like all other Icelandic citizens but our tax money is given instead to the University of Iceland so we have no access to it. Sidmennt’s normal growth and development have been severely hampered by this strange set-up. We have no office and no paid staff.

Sidmennt has applied twice in the last 4 years for official registration and funding from the Icelandic government as a religious organization, even though we describe ourselves as a life stance organization. We have done this to test the current law about religious associations which we feel is unconstitutional. Our application has been rejected both times. We have been told that Sidmennt does not meet the requirements even though the law does not state that belief in an invisible, supernatural deity is one of the requirements. We were asked to prove that our life stance has historical roots, international connections, and regular activities. We did this in far greater detail in our second application which was accompanied by a letter of support from our Norwegian sister-organization (HEF) which has held equal status with religious groups in Norway since 1981.

In the spring of 2005, after the second rejection of our application, Sidmennt hired a human rights lawyer to examine laws related to our situation and advise us on the best strategy for the future.

Shocking Results

The result of our lawyer’s research was rather shocking to us. The law about registration of religious organizations does not in fact allow for equal status of other life stance associations (such as Sidmennt) despite the fact that when this law was last amended in 1999 a clause was inserted mentioning the phrase life stance organization.

Even more shocking was when our lawyer stated in her expert opinion that the Icelandic constitution does NOT actually protect the rights of non-believers! A few days after we received her legal opinion we pointed this out at a conference held by an official government committee reviewing the Icelandic constitution. The Sidmennt board sent this committee a formal request for a constitutional amendment. The Sidmennt board decided to launch a lobbying campaign to get the legislators to do something about this matter and change the law regarding registration of religious organizations in order to include life stance groups or else to pass a new law about life stance organizations giving them equal status to religions.

Recent Lobbying efforts

During 2005 Sidmennt sent a letter, along with the document from our lawyer, and a translation of the Norwegian law about life stance organizations to every Member of Parliament urging them to take action about this human rights violation and met with a number of Parliamentarians in person. Early in 2006 we were invited by the most important committee in Parliament to briefly present our ‘case’. They listened politely, asked a few questions, and promised nothing. In May, Sidmennt and the Icelandic Human Rights Centre held a joint public seminar on the subject of equality for all life stance organizations. Among the speakers were our lawyer and Lorentz Stavrum, the lawyer from Human Etisk Forbund in Norway and representatives from most of the political parties in Parliament.

We recently sent the Icelandic Minister of Justice and Ecclesiastical Affairs a formal request for him to support a bill in Parliament which would provide Sidmennt with equal status to religions. He flatly turned it down. Unfortunately this cabinet minister is the only religious fundamentalist in the current Icelandic administration and he views Sidmennt as one of his main opponents.

Sadly, none of our efforts so far have moved our case forward. We have sent all Members of Parliament another request to support a bill and asked them to let us know where they stand on this matter. We have especially encouraged the chairmen of each party’s parliamentarians to discuss this matter within their group and let us know if they are willing to support such a bill. The reason for our lobbying efforts over the past 2 years is primarily to exhaust all other possibilities of getting a new law passed which would give us the same status and funding as religious groups, before we embark on the extremely costly and time consuming process of bringing a lawsuit against the Icelandic government.

Our Last Resort

On November 1 2006, the Sidmennt board met with one of Iceland’s most prominent human rights lawyers, to set the wheels in motion to sue the Icelandic government for human rights violations by repeatedly refusing to give Sidmennt equal status with religions. This is a huge step to take and the process may take many years. It is the first time in our 16 year history that we have taken such an important decision but we are convinced that we have a valid case which is worth fighting for. We are prepared to go all the way to the Icelandic Supreme Court and if we do not win, we are prepared to go farther, to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. This will of course be very expensive but we hope it will pay off in the end!

Bjarni Jonsson is a Board Member of Sidmennt, the Humanist Association of Iceland.