The Catholic Church in Australia has apologised for its part in an assimilation policy aimed at breaking the spiritual and cultural identity of Aborigines, by removing tens of thousands of black children from their parents, reports the Newsletter of the Irish Association of Humanists. (Autumn 1996)

Catholic Bishops have said that 'the stolen generation of Australians is the forgotten generation.' And 'we regret that some of the church's child welfare services assisted governments to implement assimilation policies.' 'The abhorrent practice of removing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families will remain forever a blight on our nation,' they declared.

The government's separation policy which was implemented from the mid-1800s until the mid-1960s led to the physical removal of Aboriginal children from their families for placement in government or religious institutions. This was due to the underlining view that conversion to Christianity required the weakening of the spiritual influence of Aboriginal elders and culture on the younger generation.. Aboriginal historians reckon that the Aboriginal population has declined from 2 million at the time of white settlement in 1788 to the current figure of 300,000. Aborigines have called this policy genocide.

A report on 'the stolen generation' will appear later. Meanwhile, the bishops have said that belief in 'the superiority of white power' led to the policy: 'In many ways this is the ultimate tragedy and injustice of race relations in this country.., namely that Aboriginal people were perceived to be inferior to other Australians.'

Alice Walker will be Humanist of the Year

The American Humanist Association will give the Humanist of the Year Award to Alice Walker at the conference in Denver in April. She is a world-renowned writer of novels and poetry including books such as The Color of Purple and Possessing the Secret of Joy. She has also campaigned against the practice of female genital mutation.

Other awards will go to the Ingersoll impersonator Roger Greeley and the family crisis counsellor Hank Giaretto.

The conference takes place April 18-20 in Denver, Colorado, Details from AHA National Office, 7 Harwood Drive, PO Box 1188, Amherst, New York 14226-7188.

A group including the American Humanist Association have filed a brief to the US Supreme Court urging the court to uphold the right to physician-assisted suicide. Co-signatories to the brief were Americans for Religious liberty, the Congress of Secular Jewish organisations, the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Society for Humanistic Judaism, and the Episcopal Diocese of Newark. An interesting alliance!

The Court is scheduled to hear two cases upholding the right to assisted suicide. The brief contends that the ban on physician-assisted suicide by New York and Washington State burdens the liberty element of the Fourth Amendment and the religion clauses of the First Amendment. The brief points out that religious organisations and leaders have taken a variety of positions in relation to physician-assisted euthanasia and that the civil law should not favour some religions over others. A ruling is expected by summer.

Integrated education in Ireland

The Ulster Humanist Association is now stimulating debate in Northern Ireland about integrated education and about the poverty of politics in a society dominated by religion. Sean Kearney writes: 'Without integrated education we can never hope for an integrated society. The point does not require labouring and its truth should be evident to all. The humanist objective would be ultimately to develop a secular educational system, but we must adopt a rational approach to these matters.'

The immediate concern for integrated education is to enable people to withstand the hostility between Catholics, Protestants and freethinkers. 'The encouraging thing,' he writes 'about the integrated schools is the fact that families who commit their children to them seem totally satisfied and never regret the decision. They immediately experience the value of this added dimension to their children's education, which eliminates prejudice and develops a more outward looking personality.'

Sectarians remain opposed to integrated schools, as for example Father Paul who has stated that 'integrated schools were started by the British and given favoured legislative status as a dirty political trick to undermine Catholic schools.' But he was challenged by parents of children at integrated schools, for example, one parent stated: 'During my 14 years as a pupil in Catholic schools I never experienced anything approaching the moral courage and generosity I see in the integrated schools my children now attend.' (The Humanist, Ulster Humanist Association, Vol. 3, No 12)

The bicentennial anniversary of the Treaty of Tripoli has been celebrated by the Campus Freethought Alliance based in New York Buffalo. The treaty signed by the Founding Fathers of the US contains the statement that 'the government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.' This treaty with the city-state of Tripoli -- an Islamic nation -- was written under George Washington's presidency and ratified unanimously by the Senate under John Adams.

The Freethought Alliance states that 'although the United States was founded on theprinciples of rational thought, individual rights, and personal liberties, too many Americans still associate our government with Christian doctrine, and link patriotism to religious belief. This completely dismisses the secular foundations laid down by leaders such as Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin, who were not Christian.'

IN the US the Heritage foundation has recommended that Congress 'mandate a census question on religious practice for the census of the year 2000. Voice of Reason, the Newsletter of Americans for Religious Liberty, claim the recommendation indicates 'a substantial misunderstanding of the constitutionally limited role of government in the religious life of the people of this nation'.

They point out that one of the purposes of the First Amendment was to limit governmental involvement in religious activity, so why should the Congress know the 'level and intensity of religious practice in America'. After all Congress is not permitted to discriminate for or against individuals on the basis of their religious convictions or practices.

The recommendation raises serious constitutional problems. What will the congress do with such knowledge? Will the taxes of religious people be lowered to reward them for their piety? Will religious charities be treated differently from other charities? 'The proposal is an insidious one,' (Voice of Reason, Winter 1996)

THE national Park Service (US) has removed a religious plaque at the statue of Liberty. The plaque had been placed there for the promotion of the Hindu cult leader, Sri Chinmoy. The action followed two weeks of protests, including faxes and media statements by the American Atheists.

Ellen Johnson, President of the American Atheists, said 'This is an important victory for state-church separation; it re-affirms the principle that religious markers, facilities or graffiti have no place on public property, especially at an important monument like the Statue of Liberty. (American Atheist Newsletter, October 1996.)

HUMAN (Humanist Association of Nepal) was inaugurated on 14 January '97 by IHEU Executive Director Babu. Gogineni. News of HUMAN's founding, as well as the IHEU Executive Director's speech on Secular Humanism received good notices in the press, including first page coverage. It is expected that HUMAN will be an active voice for Humanism in the world's only Hindu Kingdom.

Work on establishing a humanist organisation in Nepal started after Dr. Bhogendra Sharma of the Centre for the Victims of Torture, Khatmandu, participated in a meeting of the South Asia Humanist Network in Bombay. HUMAN now has a core leadership of 11 leading Nepalese human rights advocates like Sushil Pyakurel, Mohan Kharel & Gauri Pradham of the pro-democracy movement, Ganga Prasad Subedi, population studies specialist and activist. Dr. Gopi Upreti noted academic and environmentalist, will be the coordinator.

HUMAN proposes to use the existing human rights network in Nepal to produce and distribute educational resources for advancing humanist principles. HUMAN will also conduct belief-surveys of the Terai region to investigate the influence of Hindu fundamentalism from across the border in India and welcomes expert input from sociologists who may be willing to visit Nepal in this connection or guide the research project.

More information can be obtained from the IHEU London headquarters or from

HUMAN, EO. Box 5284, Khatmandu, Nepal. D +977-1-248 013 Fax: +977-1-220 161 E Mail: Naecan@casnov.attmail.com

THIS is an uncompromising book of close to 400 pages that presents an elegant view of history. Major events in the development of the arts, science, and belief are detailed and traced. The relevance of this approach to history is compelling and self-evident. The usefulness of this book to anyone who seeks a broad understanding of our past and our present cannot be overstated. Its author, however, has a greater purpose than compiling a history of Western Civilisation.

In his forward Mr Blackham states his intentions: 'Will there be a future for humanity? If so, its course - the outcome of our history -is already mapped out... Being responsible for the future, we should begin with an informed response to the past' ...

The final sentence of his foreword reads: 'To provoke, this is the purpose of this book'. Above all, it provokes a desire to seek out and read Mr Blackham's other works. It seems scarcely possible that anyone could read The Future of our Past without being affected by the scholarship and the vision of its author. (Peter Murphy, New Zealand Rationalist and Humanist, Summer 1996)

As we know, the word 'humanism' has been used over several centuries by different people with quite different meanings. Admirers of a whole range of great people have called them 'humanists' in spite of very important differences in the ideology, life-style and philosophy of these persons. In this somewhat complex scenario which of course includes substantial changes over the decades in the nuances of the word 'humanism', there is at least one clear figure of an outstanding Indian who was a 'humanist' in the sense in which the word 'humanist' is used in the current international humanist movement and that is Jawaharlal Nehru, one of the leading figures in India's struggle for freedom and the first Prime Minister of India.

It has become somewhat common to quote certain writings by B K Karanjia in the Blitz magazine published during the later years of Jawaharlal Nehru's life in an attempt to show that during the evening of his life, Jawaharlal Nehru had turned or was turning to be a 'theist'. According to Karanjia's description, in an interview with Jawaharlal Nehru the latter referred to ethical and 'spiritual' solutions to problems, whereupon Karanjia mentioned to Jawaharlal Nehru that 'this raises the vision of Nehru in search of God in the evening of his life. Karanjia further reports that Nehru said, 'Yes, I have changed.' Perhaps there was a 'change' in Jawaharlal Nehru's views over the years. And why should there not be? A true humanist is always open to conviction, a review. But the question is what was the direction of the change.

Obviously, Karanjia attached a great significance to the use by Jawaharlal of the word 'spiritual'. A large number of humanists are opposed to the use of the word in describing humanist values due to its strong association with traditional religious beliefs, divinity and the supernatural. There are many others, however, who do like to talk of 'spiritual' values as distinct from and in addition to moral values. They feel that keeping in view the alternative Dictionary meanings of the term and the fact that there are certain humanist values which do not get fully covered by the word 'moral' it is correct and useful to employ the word 'spiritual' even in the humanist context and not allow this word to be hijacked as the sole property of the vocabulary of traditional religions with their fixed belief systems and linkage with a supernatural entity. (Humanist Outlook, Vol 7 No 10)