As we are in Martin Luther King’s country, I must confess that I had a dream, as he did. I dreamed that we would be able to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in a world of peace and social justice, with people respecting one another’s choices and ways of life. In this world everyone would live together with their neighbours, regardless of life stance, colour, gender, or other differences. Alas, in 60 years we have not acquired more sense or reformed our behaviour. On the contrary, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva is controlled by countries that are far from being the most democratic or respectful of human rights.

As president of IHEU I am happy to welcome you to the 17th World Congress. Indeed as an international organisation it is important that IHEU should bring Humanist values to the attention of as many people as possible, especially since there is a common misapprehension that without belief in a god, it is impossible to have values and norms. Of course, we know better. We must be prepared to consider and discuss values regularly and to meet the challenges posed by changes in society and by scientific developments.

The International Humanist and Ethical Union was founded in 1952 to represent Humanists, atheists and freethinkers from all over the world. We have 112 Member Organisations in 37 countries. As we are a democratic umbrella organisation, our members are free to emphasise those issues that are important to them, in their region, at a given time. Of course, we try to unite within a common framework, but we never instruct our members to act in a particular way.

We do have a minimum statement about Humanism [1] that our members have to subscribe to and there is the longer Amsterdam Declaration [2]. As you can imagine, this underwent a number of changes in the drafting process – only to be expected, as life and society change all the time.

Although it is true that the world has become more democratic and more secular, there is still a lot of work ahead. It is not enough to act as democratically as possible within our organisation. As long as we are recruiting only from a small segment of society, we fail; as long as humans are not treated in an equal way, we fail.

We may have managed to develop a more secular society, at least in the West, but at the same time we see the growing influence of all sorts of religious groups, and growing fundamentalism within traditional religions. In addition there is the attraction of “New Age” ideas.

This is a big challenge. IHEU’s role can and should be to share experiences from one part of the world with another.

We live in a globalised world, whether we like it or not. We must face the reality of a world where more and more cultures have to live together. So a dialogue is the only way to live in peace. We will have to compromise, but this does not mean that we can forget our own Humanism.

This Congress proves that we are still far away from an ideal world and that problems are very diverse! From human rights over condoms, through freedom of speech, to separation of government and religion: there is a connection to Humanist values. It is odd but I cannot remember how many times I have had to explain that even without supernatural beings, I do have values and norms.

We should participate in discussions involving religions and beliefs, although that is not obvious to everyone. Last October, I was invited to an international conference in Macedonia, sponsored by UNESCO, about dialogue between religions and civilisations. We were two Humanists among 398 representatives of different religions. You have to believe me when I say that many of them were surprised when they found that we behaved in a civilised fashion! The most elementary knowledge of atheism, secularism and Humanism was lacking. Discussion is needed but, to start with, a lot of explanation and information has to be given. And at such a moment it is important to be able to say that you are a member of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, that Humanism is not a backyard hidden sect but a respectable way of thinking and acting.

Sonja Eggerickx is President of IHEU

1 Humanism is a democratic and ethical life stance, which affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. It stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethic based on human and other natural values in the spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities. It is not theistic, and it does not accept supernatural views of reality.

2 http://www.iheu.org/amsterdamdeclaration