Imagine you are the President of an international organisation asking for funds all the time, and, it must be said, not always very successful in getting them. Imagine there is a worldwide economic crisis and you are still President of that international organisation. Imagine then that something very unusual happens: you receive a legacy of US $2.5 million. Well, dear friends, that is exactly what has happened. At last year’s General Assembly we announced the legacy but I made the point that at that time we had not then received a single dollar from it. I promised to inform you as soon as we had gone through all the necessary legal processes and had the money safely in our account.

And that is exactly what we have done by mailing you recently when we eventually received the money. This, my dear friends, doesn’t mean that all our problems are over. The money has to go into an endowment fund, and we can only use the interest. But at least this legacy has the potential to make IHEU more effective.

This year is, of course, Darwin’s anniversary year. And all over the world our Member Organisations (MOs) took the lead in commemorating it and promoting science. It is a vital moment in our struggle against superstition, in our never-ending efforts to make the scientific approach the natural way of thinking about our world and our universe. We witnessed yesterday at our meeting celebrating Darwin how we can explain evolution even to small children.

Our ideal of separation of religion and state has not yet been fulfilled! Just because President Obama mentioned non-believers in his inauguration speech, it does not mean that atheists are fully accepted in the US or that God has disappeared from public life. Just because France has the very good law of 1905, it does not mean that secularism is a fact in France. Last Wednesday there was a memorial service for the victims of the missing Air France plane, in the presence of the President and his wife. It was in the cathedral, even though it is unlikely that all the victims were Catholics.

Our delegates in international bodies can tell us that human rights are not evident; the Human Rights Council in Geneva is still in hands of nations known neither for their great sense of democracy nor respect for human rights. But our delegates don’t give up and I want to thank them for it as I did last year and the year before. We decided to attend the Durban II conference in order not to give free rein to those whose actions are exactly the opposite of our ideals in human rights. And it is good that at least someone keeps a finger in the pie and continues to make clear what those ideals should be.

Our campaigns in India and Africa continue. We welcome the Conference on Untouchability. And we hope that our project “Adopt a Dalit village” will be successful, with many of our MOs supporting a Dalit village in India. Africa is a difficult part of the world for Humanism but both Leo Igwe and Deo Ssekitooleko are working hard in their respective areas. The schools project in Uganda is doing well, thanks also to regional Humanist groups in the UK, but there is more work to be done in building their organisation and infrastructure. The challenge for us is to help them.

In many parts of the world we don’t have MOs. The Membership Growth and Development Committee intends to change that, and will need to discuss development possibilities and how best to help set up new organisations. We want to accentuate our growing international movement, and thus try to make Humanism known worldwide.

Communication is vital and we worked hard on it last year. But this brings me to another difficulty: the relationship between IHEU and you – our MOs. There is the internet, there is email, but it seems impossible to appoint an international contact person for each of our MOs who would be responsible for a two-way contact with IHEU. I wrote to all MOs asking you each to appoint one, but few have done so. If we had such a person in each organisation, we could give you more news about actions and statements from Humanists all over the world – and the members in all the MOs would also get more information about international Humanist issues.

Language can be a difficulty, but it must be possible to find solutions in your organisations for that problem. And it would be great if our website could be in more than one language, so if you know volunteers to translate, send them to our webmaster! We have the International Humanist News: four issues in English are published yearly and one in French. It would be helpful if more MOs would cooperate on it. And very recently there was a “webinar”, organised by Matt Cherry. I heard that it was a success and participants were enthusiastic. This could be a future way of building a network and it gives us some hope.

There are some issues where we face a real challenge. I think that the situation of girls and women should be much more of a priority for us. Where human rights are violated, the situation for women is always worse. At last there could be some improvement if the new “super- agency for women” is accepted by the UN General Assembly. That would give us, it would give all women, more legal power to fight for their rights. It is a huge responsibility for Humanists to implement in everyday life our principles about the equality of all human beings.

I heard not long ago that for the first time the Indian parliament will be chaired by a woman, Ms Meira Kumar. She is member of a lower caste. That is good news in a way and I do strongly hope that the situation of women and lower-caste Indians will finally improve, although I am well aware that her presence alone is not sufficient. Dear friends, we might have been persuaded that the Age of Enlightenment had achieved its aims, but the ideals of that period are more and more under attack. In the name of tolerance we accept many violations of human rights. It is important to realise that not only freedom of speech is under attack, but also the right to education, the right to live a decent life, the right of access to good healthcare, the right to housing and the right to work. It is important not to forget these rights; it is not this or that but this and that. Freedom to die from starvation is not a genuine freedom. When access to education is seen merely as the right to learn the contents of an old book, presented as holy, it cannot be considered a freedom. Tolerance and respect are vital. But that doesn’t mean that we have to accept everything. Of course we live in a world where different religions and cultures come together. We have to seek a way to live together. But this may not always lead to a just society. And again: it is time for pride in Humanism and atheism.

I am glad to say that Humanist youngsters do what they can. But we have to help IHEYO as much as we can, for they are the future. We must work together with them without patronising them. To find a way to offer them our experience without insisting on our particular methods is a difficult exercise, but necessary.

I would like to end this address with the very simple words of the BHA bus: “There is probably no god. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life”. For this audience we can drop the “probably”!