Dear Friends,

I had hoped during 2006 to be able to involve our Member Organisations more in the daily work of IHEU. I am afraid we didn’t succeed.
It is important to remember that we had some difficulties last year. On November 11 we sent a message to our Member Organisations to inform you that the post of Operations Director was being made redundant. That decision was taken because funding for the post was no longer available.

At the IHEU planning and strategy meeting last year, the Executive Committee confirmed that the main priorities of IHEU for the next few years lie in Humanist development in India and Africa, in the work of the Bioethics Centre in New York, and in our international representation at the United Nations in New York and Geneva, the Council of Europe in Strasbourg and UNESCO in Paris – as was announced and agreed at the GA last year in New York.

The post of Director of Operations in London was created three years earluier, when IHEU’s priorities were different and the activities of IHEU were more centralised. As a result, Suresh Lalvani left at the end of November.

Of course this was not easy as administration and bookkeeping had to go on. We succeeded in continuing to do both from London. We were very happy that Lee Chester agreed to help us out with the book keeping and you can find the proof that she did a tremendous job in your documents. But she also helped with administration. I would like to thank her for this. And I am aware that she did more then we were able to pay for.

Of course not everything was solved at once. The saddest thing was the misunderstanding about this GA which was originally planned in Berlin. Miscommunication between the office and the EC about an earlier date, made it too late for proper preparations. We do apologise for it. We were happy to accept the Italian solution.

Before I go to our more successful activities, I would like to thank Robbi Robson. She worked so very hard to make this GA possible, with all the documents, the preparations etc. But she also volunteered to clean one of our two office rooms in Gower Street that we didn’t need any longer and the British Humanist Association was glad to take over. I know that you were helped by others Robbi, but you did the great job!

But failing on this side of the work didn’t mean that everything was wrong. On the contrary! As announced at last year’s GA we really did start big campaigns in India and Africa. You remember that Babu went back to India and he succeeded in organising some of our M.O.’s there to work together and to really try to make the change for the Indian society into a more human one. Of course it is a huge task. And it is far from complete, but every step is important. Of course it would be very nice if we could spend lots of money on it, but even now it is so good to see that we can make people enthusiastic for rationality, that we are able just by reasoning to open minds. But Babu will report more in detail on this subject. VB who was in Paris in 2005, is right now marching through India on a living in dignity campaign. Those who say that Dalits are not longer an issue, are wrong. Wherever action is taken to protest against the caste system, the press are there. And we all know too well that they don’t show up for everyday things…

And there is our work in Africa. We are so lucky that Leo Igwe from Nigeria accepted to travel around on his continent to help African humanists to organise. He is very brave, in his own country too he stands up to speak for human rights even when it as delicate an issue as same sex marriages. And the Uganda school plans are slowly progressing, but there too a lot of work is to be done.

What is important is that it is not ‘the white man’ who is working there, it is not us telling them what to do. Humanism is about emancipation of mankind and we have to do it ourselves, in our own way. That goes for Europe, for America, but also for India and Africa. It is not always easy to respect traditions and at the same time try to make changes that matter. It is obvious that sometimes we have to fight traditions fiercely. We cannot accept child marriage, female circumcision, child labour… We cannot accept witchcraft… But we will need a lot of patience, endurance, time and reasoning to change them.

Working as a volunteer representative in NGO commissions of the UN must be very discouraging. Human Rights are violated all over the world. And the commission in Geneva is not a good example of respecting Human Rights. We are so lucky to have our volunteers there who – at least this is my impression - never sleep and are watching every word, every step, in order to limit the damage.

We launched the Brussels Declaration in order to try to prevent any reference to a god or religion in the European constitution. It was a success. I am aware of the fact that not everybody was happy with it, but I think that it is part of the task of IHEU to speak out loud when one particular life stance tries to influence us in a single direction, while ignoring a huge part of the European population: humanists, atheists, freethinkers, or ‘other’ religious…

There is still a lot of work to do: we are too few for too much work. We see that the system of supporting individuals with a good plan for organising humanists works in India as well as in Africa. It is important to continue our work there. But at the same time it is important to use our contacts in the rest of the world. Although I know that in 2007 it is not only about humanist organisations that we have to bother, but about elementary human rights such as food, a house, a school, peace… Of course talking about those terrible things and saying “J’accuse…” (I denounce…) as did Emile Zola the great French writer, is choosing the side of the oppressed and consequently is being political. But maybe this is just a (that) little bit more of what Humanists have to do. We cannot just sit and analyse situations such as are going on and on in Darfur, we cannot just sit and watch human beings are killed in Baghdad (and I am not going to analyse the political situation there). I know that many people are killed at random, just because they were crossing a bridge, or buying food in a market place… We have to denounce that, and if this is being political, well let us be political then.

There is still a lot to do; our task should be to intervene in commissions, in organisations like UN, Unesco, etc, as we already do. A task for all of us after going back to our own place, is to ask respect for our ideas, and to propagate our Humanist values in order to have some bearing on solving the world’s problems.

Thank you

Sonja Eggerickx

Saturday 17 June 2007