Thank you Roy for inviting me to make a presentation at this seminar, and thank you friends for coming.

In a speech today (14 March 2012) at the plenary of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, IHEU representative Leo Igwe criticised governments for aiding and abetting belief in witchcraft, leading to the torture and killing of innocent women and children in Africa and around the world.

In March, Nigeria's notorious witch hunter, Helen Ukpabio, is organising a “Deliverance Session” in the United States, according to infomation posted on the web site of the Liberty Gospel Church. The event is slated for March 14-25 at Liberty Gospel Church in Houston, Texas. The program is said to be “12 days of battling with the spirit for freedom.”

Humanist organizations from Nigeria and across the world are condemning Nigeria's Senate for passing a bill that would criminalise same-sex marriage, outlaw LGBT advocacy groups, and even ban displays of amorous affection between people of the same sex.

Leo Igwe is stepping down as International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) Representative for Western and Southern Africa, in order to start a three year research programme on “Witchcraft accusations in Africa” at the University of Bayreuth, in Germany.

IHEU representative Hannah Bock raised two examples of traditional practices that are continuing to impede efforts to reduce maternal mortality: child marriage in Afghanistan and the forced feeding of young girls in Mauritania.

Humanists have expressed their outrage at a call to “get rid” of gays in Ghana. Paul Evans Aidoo, the government minister for the Western Region of Ghana, reportedly told the Joy FM radio station in Accra that: "All efforts are being made to get rid of these people in society."  Aidoo, a devout Roman Catholic, went on to call for the Bureau of National Investigations to round up all gays and called on landlords and tenants to inform on people they suspect of being homosexual. "Once they have been arrested, they will be brought before the law.”

On July 26, 2011, nearly 30 people took part in the first ever Humanist meeting in the West African nation of Benin.