The British Humanist Association (BHA) launched a defence today of the right for everyone to have a funeral of their choice, in response to Church of England vicar Reverend Ed Tomlinson’s assault on humanist funerals.

The third issue of the annual French language version of International Humanist News has been published. The magazine addresses the growing need for Humanist literature in francophone countries and aims to build a direct bridge between Humanists in those countries and the IHEU. The magazine is available to download from this web site.

Le troisième numéro des Informations Humanistes Internationales vient de paraitre. Le revue satisfera le besoin croissant pour la littérature humaniste dans de divers pays francophones et etablira un lien direct entre les humanistes et libre penseurs dans ces pays et l'IHEU. Le revue est disponible pour télécharger depuis ce site internet.

IHEU's campaign for freedom of expression at the UN Human Rights Council has been highlighted by Macleans, the Canadian news magazine. In a wide-ranging article concluding that Islamic states are trying to stifle freedom of speech in the guise of anti-defamation rules, the magazine quoted the recent ruling at the Council that NGOs could not refer to Sharia law.

Fritanke.no, the newspaper of the Norwegian Humanist Association has announced that selected articles from its Norwegian edition will also be available in English. The English language articles can be found at http://www.fritanke.no/ENGLISH/ The first two articles on the site relate to the important developments and arrangements made by a joint National Assembly relating to the State-Church relation in Norway.

In a shocking affront to freedom of expression, the Government of Punjab, India, has banned four rationalist books and threatened legal action against the authors and translators, Tarksheel Society of Punjab reports. The supposed grounds for the ban is that the books are "incorrect literature" about Hindu deities.

Conscience magazine has offered to send a complimentary copy of its Winter 2007/08 issue to IHEU supporters. Conscience is a quarterly newsjournal published by Catholics for Choice and the issue is dedicated to an examination of church/state issues in the EU, the US and Latin America.

In a new book, Max Wallace of the Australian National Secular Association argues that democracies should be republics characterized by constitutional separations of church and state and that it is not the role of a state to ‘advance religion’ through tax breaks.

IHN welcomes original, previously unpublished, non-academic contributions on subjects of interest to the worldwide community of Humanists. Articles should be around 1000 words.

It is IHN's policy to use the word HUMANISM without adjectives or qualifications where the 'secular approach' is intended.

IHEU member organization Humanists of Florida Association has announced that it will publish a new journal, The Florida Humanist Journal. The Florida Humanist Journal will be a collection of original, thought-provoking essays and political cartoons from Humanist thinkers on important topics affecting all Floridians. The journal will be published annually.

This is the full version of the statement delivered on 23 January 2006 to the 4th session of the Intergovernmental Working Group on the effective implementation of the Durban Declaration and Program of Action held from 16 to 27 January 2006 at the Palais des Nations, Geneva. Chairman: Ambassador Juan Martabit (Chile)

Thematic analysis on Racism and Globalization (Agenda item 6): Debate: 23 January. Statement by David G. Littman - Text in full