Slavery was associated with the ancient Greeks and Romans. And of course there was slavery in America. Remember the African prisoners sent to the “new world” where they were sold and bought and owned. But that was a long time ago! I remember reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin when I was a child and being so relieved to know that nowadays we do treat people properly and slavery is history. The world had become more civilised. At least that was what I heard in my primary school. I also learned that “our missionaries” (they were Catholic ones in my case) played a great role in liberating those poor people. Alas, this was wrong, as I came to know later.

Slavery in one form or another still exists. This issue carries articles about the Dalits. It is clear that their condition is recognised as being akin to slavery but that is, unfortunately, not the only form of slavery that remains. An important part of the world economy is only possible because of the labour of thousands of people working in unhealthy places, having no other choice than to do that work at a miserable wage, in terrible circumstances, not able to change, not able to make another choice, as they are illiterate and haven’t had the chance to develop their skills, and conscious of the fact that there is no way out. Not for them, not for their children… Big companies make fortunes at their cost since they work in the most terrible conditions, not able to buy proper food, nor decent housing, nor able to live in dignity. That is slavery. This is not just in the Third World. One can find slaves like them in factories all over the world, in New York and South Italy as well as in Eastern Europe. And I am talking now only about slaves producing goods.

What about women who are forced to work in the so-called sex-industry? They do it not out of choice or because they like it but because they were promised a good income in a rich country. In many cases their passports are taken away from them so that they cannot even escape this bondage. I only mention this as there is still a lot of misunderstanding about this phenomenon: we believe it is something from long ago, in far away lands, something marginal. But it is not. All we can do is try to confront mankind with these atrocities and hope that we will be able to make victims and the rest of the world aware of the importance of giving to all human beings the chance to live in freedom, to live a decent life.

I want to announce now itself that next year in June we will have a conference in London about the Dalits. It is shameful that the caste system persists in the 21st century, more than 60 years after we adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Humanists should take the leading position in demolishing that system! In fact we have no choice if we want to remain relevant.

We all know that it is not easy for IHEU to be heard. We have tried to change that and I have the great pleasure to announce that we have appointed Matt Cherry as IHEU’s newest international representative. As you can read in the press release, “he brings twenty years as a professional leader to the nonreligious movement to help the organization create a US presence and expand relationships globally. His responsibilities will include leading the IHEU’s representation at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, developing a new communications strategy for the organization, and strengthening relations between IHEU and Humanist groups in North America.

Cherry has spent almost two decades as a professional leader in the Humanist movement, working in Britain, the Netherlands and the United States. He spent five years as executive director of the Council for Secular Humanism, and eight years as executive director of the Institute for Humanist Studies. In addition to his executive roles in Humanism, he has represented IHEU at the United Nations since 2002. Taking a leadership role within the UN to promote freedom of conscience, he served as the president of the UN NGO (Non-Governmental Organizations) Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief from 2004 to 2008. He is currently the vice president of that committee.”

You could also read “We are very excited that Matt Cherry will be developing IHEU’s international profile,” says IHEU president Sonja Eggerickx. “Matt’s a highly effective leader with a background that will not only benefit the IHEU but will advance the Humanist causes that are central to the work of our one hundred-plus member organizations.”

I just wanted to repeat that indeed we are very happy that we can work together with Matt. What more can the President of IHEU hope for, except of course to change the world in a Humanist way?

Sonja Eggerickx is President of IHEU