IHEU has announced the recipients of its latest funding round in partnership with HIVOS.

In June 2006, IHEU was awarded a three year “block grant” of €225,000 from HIVOS for the purpose of funding projects in the developing world. The grant covers the years 2006, 2007 and 2008. IHEU then invited grant proposals through this web site, International Humanist News and by word of mouth. The grants were decided on the basis of IHEU's published grant criteria.

Organization charts for IHEU are now available in the About IHEU section of the web site. We have two versions: a photo-chart; and a conventional organogram.

In the "interactive dialogue" following a presentation on Freedom of Religion or Belief by Special Rapporteur, Asma Jahangir, IHEU defended freedom of expression and highlighted the distinction between protection for the rights of believers, and illegitimate attempts to protect ideas, beliefs and practices from valid criticism.

IHEU has appealed to the United Nations Council on Human Rights, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UN High Commissioner Louise Arbour to condemn calls to kill in the name of god.

IHEU was represented at a recent conference organized by the Council of Europe, "The Religious Dimension in intercultural Dialogue". IHEU asked Terry Sanderson, president of IHEU member organization the National Secular Society, and Keith Porteous Wood, its director, to represent it at the conference and try to stop the religious bodies gaining for themselves the special rights of consultation that they have in the EU.

In collaboration with the World Population Foundation, IHEU has launched a joint campaign against the horror of child marriage, a practice all-too prevalent in many parts of the world, and likely to affect over 100 million girls within the next ten years.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jody Williams, who led a UN Human Rights Council mission to Darfur but whose team was denied admission to the country, submitted her report to the UN on 12 March. Based on evidence collected in nearby countries and refugee camps in Eastern Chad, the report comprehensively condemns the Sudanese government for its failure to protect its civilian population, accusing it of acting in concert with its proxy militias in human rights abuse in Darfur where some 200,000 people have died since the revolt began in 2003.

IHEU member organization IHEYO is supporting a new South Asian Working Group to parallel is successful Africa Working Group initiative.

The World Health Organisation now estimates that some 130 million women and girls, mainly in Africa, have been subjected to genital mutilation, with between two and three million more undergoing this barbaric practice each year.

In an important speech to the European Parliament Working Group on Separation of Religion and Politics on 28th November, David Pollock, President of the European Humanist Federation spoke out against attempts to redefine Europe's values as essentially Christian and stressed the need for secularism in Europe.