I had hoped to be able to involve our Member Organisations more with the daily work of IHEU but 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 tell them that the post of Operations Director had been 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 would 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. This was announced and accepted at the General Assembly 2006 in New York.

The post of Director of Operations in London had been created three years earlier, when IHEU priorities were different and our were more centralised. As a result of the withdrawal of funding, Suresh Lalvani left at the end of November.

Of course this presented problems for the continuation of administration and bookkeeping. We succeeded in continuing it from London. We are very happy that Lee Chester agreed to take on the bookkeeping, and your documents show what a tremendous job she did. She also helped with administration, for which I thank her. She has done much more than she was paid for.

There were other difficulties. The saddest thing was the misunderstanding about this General Assembly which had originally been planned for Berlin. Miscommunication between the office and the EC about an earlier date made it too late for proper preparations. We do apologise. Fortunately, we found a satisfactory venue here in Turin.

Before I go to our more successful activities, I would like to thank Robbi Robson. She has worked so very hard to make this General Assembly possible, with all the documentation and preparations. 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 she was helped by others, but she did a great job!

Failures on the administrative side didn’t mean that everything went wrong. On the contrary! As announced at last year’s General Assembly, we really did start big campaigns in India and Africa. You will remember that Babu went back to India and he has succeeded in organising co-operation among some of our Member Organisations there to work together towards making Indian society more humane. Of course it is a huge task and it is far from done, but every step is important. It would be very nice if we could spend lots of money on it, but even now we see that we can fire people with enthusiasm for rationality, and encourage the development of open minds. Babu’s report goes into this in more detail. V.B. Rawat, who was in Paris in 2005, is right now marching through India in aid of Living in Dignity. Those who say that Dalits are no longer an issue are wrong. Wherever and whenever action is taken to protest against the caste system, the media come. And we all know too well that they don’t show up for everyday things…

And then there is our work in Africa. We have been so lucky that Leo Igwe from Nigeria agreed to travel around his continent to help African humanists to organise. He is very brave also in his own country: he stands up for Human Rights even when it concerns very delicate issues such as same-sex marriages. In Uganda school plans are slowly progressing, but there too a lot of work has to be done.

What is important is that it is not a case of ‘the white man’ working there telling black people 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 bring about changes.

Working as an NGO volunteer representative in the UN must be very discouraging. Human Rights are violated all over the world. And the Commission in Geneva does not set a good example of respect for 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 avoid any reference to a god or a 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 when one lifestance threatens the imposition of its own views to the detriment of European Humanists, atheists, freethinkers, and other religions.

There is still a lot of work to do: we are too few for the amount work needed. We see Humanists can organise effectively to sustain individuals and organisations both in India and 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. Of course in 2007 we have to be concerned not just about Humanist organisations, but also about elementary Human Rights such as food, shelter, education and, peace… It is true that talking about 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 perhaps Humanists should move a little further in that direction. We cannot just sit and analyse and comment on the situation that is going on and on in Darfur, we cannot just sit and watch how human beings are killed in Baghdad. (I am not going to analyse the political situation there, but I know that so 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 at all levels, local, national, and international, as we already do. When we return to our own countries, we must seek respect for our ideas and work to propagate our Humanist values in order reach solutions for the World’s problems.

Sonja Eggerickx