In his New Year message, IHEU President Roy Brown highlights 2005's successful World Humanist Congress and IHEU's increased focus on campaigning and social action, especially in Africa and South Asia. He calls for humanist voices to be raised in response to fundamentalism and promises that IHEU's delegations to the UN will continue to make their presence felt. He urges all Humanists, secularists and rationalists to join in the battle for hearts and minds.

Only someone close to George Bush's inner circle could say whether the misguided policies emanating from Washington are the result of the president's "deadly combination of faith and ignorance", or of his deliberate pandering to the ignorant in order to hang on to power.

This article looks at several examples of ignorance at work: in the deeply flawed US policies on global warming and AIDS prevention, and in the way in which religious lobbying has been able to create confusion about evolution in the public mind. But America has no monopoly of ignorance, and in another article in this issue (Creeping Jihad p 8), we look at how Islamic ignorance and intolerance are making increasing inroads into western society.

Humanism for Africa
By Roy Brown

Africa and Human Development

We, the human race, first appeared in Africa over 100,000 years ago. Through migration over the following millennia Homo Sapiens came to dominate the entire planet. But as civilisation triumphed elsewhere, Africa lagged behind. The reasons why are complex, and the debate is muddied by the accusations of racism or neo-colonialism likely to be heard whenever a westerner dares to speak about Africa's problems. But the facts are there for anyone prepared to look. For whatever the reasons, sub-Saharan Africa lags behind every other continent in terms of human development.

IHEU's president Roy Brown spoke at the UN Commission on Human Rights on 5 April 2005. He urged the Commission to recognise that a truly secular society - one that is neutral in respect of all religions - is a necessary safeguard against religious intolerance - discriminating against none and favouring none. He pointed out that the United Nations is itself a shining example of secularism.

INTERNATIONAL HUMANIST AND ETHICAL UNION
UNION INTERNATIONALE HUMANISTE ET LAIQUE

Statement by Main Representative: Roy Brown, Thursday 15th April 2004
UN Commission on Human Rights: 60th session. (15 March - 23 April 2004)

Item 18. Effective Functioning of Human Rights Mechanisms

[The words in square brackets [] were not spoken]

Humanism affirms that it is possible to live the good life without depending on religion or on an authoritarian moral code. Humanists desire a society based on reason, human rights, human freedoms. Organised Humanists work for a world free of dogma and where there is no intellectual or social exploitation; a world where there is strict Separation of Religion and State, and where the freedom of conscience and the freedom of religion and belief flourish.