At its meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on the first weekend of August, 2010, the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) passed the following resolution:

The development of scientific knowledge and the evolution of social-humanistic disciplines, with which the former is strongly connected, have fundamentally changed human civilization and lifestyle, especially during the last centuries.

The electronic media is an effective tool for mass communication and all efforts should be directed towards making it an instrument for the propagation of rationalism and the cultivation of critical thinking.

General Assembly, Mumbai, 15 January 1999

The International Humanist & Ethical Union condemns the new Common Syllabus for Religious Education in Northern Ireland, which comes into effect in September, 1993.

This Syllabus should be condemned because:

1. It is exclusive. The only religion studied in the compulsory core is Christianity. This is offensive to Muslims, Hindus, Jews and members of other faiths, as well as the 12% who, according to a recent poll, declare that they have no religion. It is against the interest of the children, who have a right to a broad education and the opportunity to learn understanding and tolerance towards those of differing beliefs.

The International Humanist & Ethical Union, assembled at its 8th World Congress in Hanover, Federal Republic of Germany, August 1-5, 1982, conscious of the fact that we only live on through our descendants, feels the obligation to leave behind an earth that actually offers the next generations room to live, water, air and nourishment. Conservation of the natural environment and restoration of the disturbed natural surroundings are for us essential conditions to be able to offer a future to the young.

The IHEU believes that knowledge is an essential for the achievement of world peace, for the solutions of the issues that confront the world community.

While recognising and deploring as a basic factor in the present tragic situation in Northern Ireland the continuance of religious and sectarian division in schools and other sectors of public life, the IHEU calls upon all parties to the dispute to renounce the use of violence as counterproductive and to resolve their differences by peaceful means. As a first step the IHEU calls upon the British Government to end internment without trial.

The Executive Committee of the IHEU at its meeting June 6, 1969 endorses the Resolution adopted at the 15th General Conference of UNESCO designating 1970 International Education Year, and the decision of the United Nations 23rd General Assembly that the United Nations and its family of organisations co-operate with UNESCO in this fundamental endeavour.

We recognise the great importance for society at large, and for those directly involved, of the justified demands of students for more direct participation in working democracy within the University, of the growing responsibility towards society on the part of the University community as recently manifested in student protest, and of experiments with parallel educational systems organised by students themselves, particularly where these experiments have promised a rebirth of the vision of the University as a place of learning rather than a factory for the production of diplomas. We do, however, also wish to record our recognition of society's need for well-educated professionals. We deem the above demands reasonable, and extend our sympathy and solidarity to the student movement striving for a more equitable society.

The Board of Directors of the International Humanist & Ethical Union, assured that a case to be answered was established in 1949 by the Fact-finding Committee under the chairmanship of John Chamberlain which investigated the case of Arthur James Kraus, who was dismissed from his post in the City College of New York in 1933 after he had promoted a students' demonstration to alert opinion to the rise of fascism in Europe, supports the Open Letter to President Johnson released at a press conference in London on June 9, 1966, signed by 108 distinguished persons from 16 countries who have requested the President to order an official inquiry.