We are here in Paris this week celebrating 100 years of the separation of religion and state in France. Against an individual's lifetime, 100 years is a long time - but in terms of the life of human kind, it is but a moment.

Yesterday the representative of UNESCO said it was dangerous to mix up religion and culture. But I am going to argue that religious belief is one element of culture and of many people's cultural identity. As Humanists, we have to understand the fact that change in beliefs and in culture takes a long time. I believe we should be working toward the vision of a world that is free of religious belief in gods or supernatural beings in the public sphere.

At the Uganda General Assembly, First Vice President Robbi Robson resigned from the IHEU Executive Committee and Jack Jeffery was elected Vice President of IHEU.

After several years of dedicated contribution to IHEU's Executive Committee, First Vice President Robbi Robson resigned from the IHEU EC at the Uganda General Assembly. We are fortunate that Robbi will continue assisting the EC as Minutes Secretary and has also agreed to head the IHEU Women's Network. First as IHEU Treasurer, and then as Vice President, Robbi made a significant contribution to creating an administrative structure for IHEU, and to IHEU's restructuring from a large unwieldy Board spread over 35 countries, into a dynamic organization with the ability to react to events as they happen.