This award has been specially created by IHEU this year. We are giving a Lifetime Achievement Award to a very special man.

When he started his career as a teenager, he showed little promise as a Humanist. He had taken after his father, and become a young and eager Pentecostal preacher. He praised the Lord and sang songs about the Saviour along with his brother, and saved many souls, especially those of young girls.

Then one evening he went to the Opera - and that night he burst into tears ... "Is this what the Church has been keeping me away from for so many years?" he asked himself. What other glittering accomplishments in human culture was he missing out on because of religion? He started looking around. And soon the distance between him and the Church grew. He got himself a university degree in the Sociology of Religion, spent a year as a school teacher in a remote island in the extreme northern reaches of his country, became a journalist, and then a successful marketing professional. He was also press secretary to several cabinet ministers in his country, in itself a big achievement.

But when in the 70s he became a leader of the Humanist Association in his country, he also performed miracles. What his former Saviour at one time supposedly did with loaves of bread, he did with membership numbers. The membership of the association doubled and yet again doubled under his leadership. When he took over it was a couple of thousand members. Today it stands at over 70 thousand.

As a Humanist leader he started a hugely successful “Quit the Church” movement - so deep was its impact on society that it is now an exhibit in a Cultural History Museum in his country. He was instrumental in making Humanism mainstream in his country. His name also is well known today. The best cartoonists have drawn him; newspapers announce his birthday. He is regularly featured on TV, on radio, in the newspapers and at meetings.

As leader of his Humanist organisation, he reached out to IHEU when it was based in Utrecht. He brought his organisation closer to the IHEU and turned it into one of IHEU's most important supporters. He recruited further support and membership for IHEU from Germany and elsewhere, including establishing ties with Humanists of India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and elsewhere. "I am a collector", he said, and brought numerous rationalist and Humanist groups into the IHEU fold. He was instrumental in creating a membership filter so that IHEU would remain Humanist while growing rapidly.

In 1987 he was elected Co-Chairman of IHEU. From 1998 to 2003 he served as our President. As President he wisely and ably steered the IHEU through the troubled waters of conflict. He protected the organisation's integrity when a stealth campaign was unleashed to destroy IHEU's efforts to rescue from death row our colleague Dr. Shaikh in Pakistan. At the peak of the campaign for Dr. Shaikh he bravely went to Pakistan. When in Nigeria he defended publicly the cause of Amina Lawal - sentenced to death for having conceived before her marriage.

When he stepped down from IHEU's Presidentship in 1999, he became Chair of the IHEU's Committee on Growth and Development. IHEU's present restructuring is based on an original recommendation to the EC made by him as Chair of the Growth and Development Committee.

He has fought racism and defended the rights of immigrants. When he was to make a speech at Oslo Town Hall, where the Nobel Peace prize is awarded, he chose to speak of racism and of his feelings for the young life snuffed out in his neighbourhood because of racism. He has spoken about the Four Dangers of Irrationality and supported efforts to expose charlatans.

He has warned of the dangers of the rapid growth of charismatic Christianity, and exposed with devastating effect the fraudulent claims of Norway's powerful Charismatic Christian leader Aril Edvardsen. Edvardsen, who had declared before this exposure that Levi Fragell was his enemy number one, was effectively silenced.

After a lifetime in the service of Humanism, and several decades of visionary leadership, he is excited that the disestablishment of the Church and the establishment of greater freedom of religion or belief has become a reality. It may not be long before his country's Constitution will no longer say “The religion of the state remains Evangelical-Lutheran. Inhabitants of that confession are committed to raising their children in the same.”

We know that when that happens, it would have been in large measure because of his work and campaign along with his colleagues. Having gauged that prospect, he has now turned his energetic attention to the issues surrounding the Right to Die in Dignity, and to Euthanasia.

He still reminds us tirelessly that all the Humanist groups around the world should share a common identity, a common symbol and a common name, so that Humanists everywhere in the world would be instantly recognised as the votaries of reason and defenders of human freedoms - just as religions are today largely recognised for being intolerant and for being the peddlers of superstition and irrationality. So he collects and wears badges with the HAPPY HUMAN Humanist symbol. He also collects walking sticks and picks berries on weekends and swims in choppy seas even when warned.

When the Norwegian Humanist Association celebrated 50 years of its founding, he received a special recognition, with the King of Norway in attendance. It is now our turn to pay tribute to an extraordinary Humanist and human being, Levi Fragell.

Levi and his partner, Anne Karine, were to be with us in Washington. But only a week ago he had a heart attack and was unable to travel. We are happy to say that he is making a good recovery.

But of course IHEU still wishes to honour such a well respected and valued international leader, and Kristin Mile, Secretary General from the Norwegian Humanist Association will accept the award and take it to Levi, together with a video of tonight’s ceremony – with our love and good wishes.

IHEU awards Levi Fragell a special award for Lifetime Achievement.