The IHEU condemns the contempt of humanist values no matter in which country it occurs.

The IHEU deeply regrets that a number of governments, in which even signers of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are included, substitute the rights of man for their own will - and keep refusing investigations especially regarding their opponents (examples: Chile, USSR, Czechoslovakia, Spain, etc.).

The free expression of opinion being a basic human right, the IHEU condemns all violations of that right wherever they occur. In particular we protest at the recent and current trials of intellectuals in Czechoslovakia, most of whom are prosecuted for their commitment to the ideals of Marxist Humanism and for their association with the attempts to promote "Socialism with a Human Face". The trials are in effect held in secret and the accused are without exception receiving severe sentences of several years in prison. Their "crimes" are no more than expressing and publishing criticism of the system and communicating with other humanists in other countries. The fact that these trials are brought under existing laws makes them no less deplorable, and reflects upon the nature of the present regime.

The International Humanist & Ethical Union believes that it speaks for men and women throughout the world in condemning the intervention by the major military powers in the affairs of smaller nations in violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations.

We call upon the Government of the USSR to end its occupation of Czechoslovakia and its suppression of the freedom of the Czechoslovak people in their attempt to create "socialism with a human face".

The Board of Directors of the International Humanist & Ethical Union expresses its great dismay at the armed interference of foreign troops in the internal affairs of Czechoslovakia.

This interference is in contravention of the Charter of the United Nations and the recognised norms of international law.

It is also, after the events in Czechoslovakia in 1948 and in Hungary in 1956, again on the part of the countries of the Warsaw Pact an infringement of the right of every nation to decide its own fate. This action reduces again for a long time the hope many people for a gradual improvement of the international relations.