The World Day of Social Justice, observed this year on Feb. 20, is an urgent call for all countries to take decisive and concrete steps to promote the UN's mission for human rights, human well being and human dignity. The recent astonishing and historic events in the Middle East and North Africa testify to the crucial importance of social justice.

Humanists have reacted generously to the disaster in Haiti. In response to the disastrous earthquake and ongoing suffering in Haiti, the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) is partnering with a new disaster relief fund called 'Non-Believers Giving Aid'. Humanists are invited to make humanitarian donations for Haiti through the new fund at: www.GivingAid.RichardDawkins.net.

See: the list of IHEU Member Organizations

See: the list of IHEU Member Organizations

On Wednesday, 29 September, Applied Philosophy Editions (EFA) and the Peruvian Non-Religious Humanist Movement (MPHA) made two presentations of The Brown Book of God -- Incredible Verses of the Bible with the participation of Norwegian author Ronnie Johanson.

In early September, Gudmer Cabello published claims of a miracle in Lima, Peru. Cabello is a Catholic priest in the parish of Our Lady of Mercedes, Barrios Altos, a district of Lima. Two public transportation mini-buses collided on Sunday, 29 August. One of them hit an external wall of the Provincial House of the Religious Mercedarias, a few metres from an image of the Lord of Column, where some children had stopped to pray. A pious woman showed the priest photographs taken five years before the supposed miracle, supposedly showing that the image's arms had moved to "save" the children.

Other photographs clearly demonstrated that there was no miraculous change in position of the arms of the kneeling Christ in the icon. According to sociologist Nelson Manrique, this was probably a psychosocial operation mounted by the present government intended to misinform and distract public opinion. It is well known that the former Fujimori government used similar psychosocial tactics in the 1990's.

On Wednesday, 1 September, the Centre of Investigations on the Paranormal, Pseudo-Sciences and Irrationality in Peru (CIPSI-PERU) presented a free seminar, "Pseudo-sciences and Pseudo-therapies" in the ADUNI Cultural Centre.

The program was in two parts: in the first session, National University of San Marcos professors of philosophy Carlos Alvarado and Marino Llanos and CIPSI-PERU Director M A Paz-y-Mino gave a general introduction to pseudo-science. In the second session, psychologist Cesar Sparrow talked about Pseudo-Science and Psychoanalysis, physician Humberto V�squez spoke on alternative therapies in Medicine and Linguist Raymundo Casas on "Scientific Creationism".

Religious Discrimination in Peruvian Public Schools
By Manuel A. Paz-y-Mino

Peru: A Non-Secular State in the 21st Century