At IHEU’s general assembly on August 6, 2010, IHEU president Sonja Eggerickx summarized the organization’s recent developments and future plans:

Dear Friends,

A special welcome this year to Brussels. We had planned to hold this meeting in Hyderabad and are sorry that events made it impossible to go to India this time. We had planned many things including leadership training, etc, etc.

However, we are very grateful that the Belgian Humanists offered to take over the organization of the GA. And for those who thought that French and Dutch speaking people in Belgium cannot work together, it is not true. Believe me, although language issues are important, there are a lot of other problems in this country, most similar to other countries. We are hosted by the CAL (Centre d’Action Laïque) and together with UVV (Unie Vrijzinnige Verenigingen) we are all doing everything we can to ensure that the GA arrangements work well. So many many thanks to all of you for your presence here in Belgium.

I am very happy to report that our representatives on international bodies continue their tremendous work. It seems that they never sleep. The Human Rights Council in Geneva is still a body that does not always live up to its name but the IHEU representatives do all they can to preserve its purpose. Our inputs to the debate on Human Rights concentrate on freedom of speech, on rights of minorities and of women, plus the right to choose whether to have a religion or not. Of course, there are many other violations of Human Rights but our team is small and it does everything possible to make the voice of Humanism heard.

Africa and India remain important regions for us. I am happy that we were able to listen to Deo yesterday and will hear him again later today about the schools in Uganda, and about how Humanists are organising on a continent which is not known for a non-theistic tradition! And we have all read about the problems of Leo Igwe in Nigeria while trying to make a difference. Not only has he been attacked and harassed by police but also his father and brother. Being a Humanist can still be dangerous in many parts of the world.

We also heard Babu speak about his never ending struggle to bring rationalism into an Indian society where religion has such a strong influence and how he tries to show that society built on superstition and religious dogma is not the way to democracy, nor to human rights.

We did make progress in developing our contacts in Africa. It is at an early stage but we have started. We are confident that this will grow and, for example, the small Senegalese group told me that they would officially ask for IHEU membership. This is a positive sign and I just mention them because I received a mail a few days ago telling me that they would go through the documents.

We also hope to begin to grow our work in Latin America, although that will not be easy.

Eastern Europe is another “open” field but even 21 years after the fall of the Berlin wall, symbol of the collapse of the communist regimes, it is not evident that people there make the distinction between their communist past on one side and atheism or Humanism on the other side. It will be very difficult there as religions are becoming very strong. New places of worship are being built all over those countries, mosques as well as churches, and the countries of the former Yugoslavia are of course examples of what happens when ethnic- and religious-based conflicts burst out. We see now that they want to have a model allowing them to live in peace with different denominations. It is important for Humanists to be there as well and to participate in the discussions about how a more peaceful society is possible. Although it sometimes looks like very time consuming discussions leading nowhere, I think we must continue to follow and participate in those “interreligious” dialogues. Even the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions did recognise that the name was not correct and promised that they would try to make it clear that Humanists and atheists, are not only welcome to the meetings of the Parliament, but have a right to take part in the discussions.

Communication is vital and I am glad to announce that our website has just had a facelift with many improvements. But the relations with our Member Organizations are not ideal. This brings me to my appeal from last year. Please do appoint a contact person to be responsible for a two-way contact on behalf of each MO. This would make communication more effective, helping us to give more news about actions, statements, etc from Humanists all over the world and it would become clearer what IHEU is expected to do for its members.

We have to find solutions for the language problem but with goodwill of those who write in a “foreign” language but also from those who have to understand it, we will find a good solution. We already have some documents in French and Spanish but not enough, so please if you know volunteers able to translate, please put them in touch with our webmaster! We’ve heard about the Google-translation possibilities and although this is not perfect it could help!

International Humanist News publishes 4 issues a year in English and one in French. We are setting up an Editorial Board to help the Editor and we hope this will help us to reach more MOs and generally improve communication and co-operation.

But Humanism needs both action and thought about Humanism and ways to reach a more humane world. I am happy to announce that the EC has now appointed the members of the new Policy Commission: Roy Brown has agreed to be the Chair with Alex Kennedy from the BHA heading the Secretariat and Prakash Narain, India, Margaret Downey, USA, Didrik Soderlind, Norway, Prof Dabir Tehrani, Scotland, Sam Ayache, France, Prof. A.C. Grayling, England, Staffan Gunnarson, Sweden and Reta Casper, Switzerland as the other members. (Roy, Alex, Staffan and Sam are present today). It will be their task to review all policy statements, to re-word them when necessary, and to suggest changes to the EC.

We are Humanists and should tell the whole world. And we don’t forget the youngsters, our future! We are very happy that delegates from IHEYO are here. We also have regular meetings with EHF, and will continue to meet. It is vital to work together. We must co-operate, not compete wherever possible if we are to make Humanism stronger!

To end I would like to thank our staff, our volunteers, our MOs, our delegates, for all the work and the energy they invest in order to make Humanism and IHEU better and stronger. Thanks so much.

-- Sonja Eggerickx, 6 August 2010