"International Humanist and Ethical Union 1952-2002 - Past, present and future" was published in 2002 to celebrate IHEU's 50th anniversary. What did IHEU achieve in its first 50 years? How is the experiment of federating over 100 organizations from 40 countries progressing? How is Humanism relevant to the modern world? What are the Humanist perspectives for the future? What does Humanism have to offer in the modern globalizing world?

IHEU is happy to be able to republish this important book as a free online illustrated ebook. The full, searchable text of the book is now also available, chapter by chapter. A full alphabetical index and bibliography, which were not included in the printed book, are now also available online. Extraits disponible en Francais ici et ici.

To download and read this PDF ebook, please click on the link under Attachment below...

"International Humanist and Ethical Union 1952-2002 - Past, present and future" was published in 2002 to celebrate IHEU's 50th anniversary. What did IHEU achieve in its first 50 years? How is the experiment of federating over 100 organizations from 40 countries progressing? How is Humanism relevant to the modern world? What are the Humanist perspectives for the future? What does Humanism have to offer in the modern globalizing world?

IHEU is happy to be able to republish this important book. It is available as a free online illustrated PDF ebook and now as fully searchable text. To read the text version, please click on the chapter links below.

When an organization celebrates its fiftieth anniversary, there is good reason to look back and to look forward. This is what the staff of the Humanistisch Archief (the Humanist Archives) in Utrecht, the Netherlands, thought two years ago, when they were appointed the official keeper of the archives of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU). The IHEU, the world federation of humanist, rationalist, secular, atheist and ethical culture organizations founded in 1952, enthusiastically welcomed their idea. Would it not be an idea to describe the IHEU's fifty years of history in a book? And would not such a publication also gain in value by complementing its historical account by a comment on IHEU and world Humanism today? So we set about circulating statements by two IHEU leaders and inviting some young humanists from around the world to react to their ideas, and to discuss their own views of the future of Humanism. As IHEU would celebrate its anniversary with a jubilee congress in the Netherlands, where it had been founded, we saw this also as a nice occasion to publicly present the book. We hope that this publication captures the vision and enthusiasm of the founding fathers, the leaders, the volunteers and professionals of a unique organization, and that it also provides some stimulating perspectives for the future of International Humanism. We hope you will enjoy the result of this co-production.

Babu Gogineni

The humanist way

As a life stance rooted in rational thinking, modern Humanism provides a way of understanding our universe in naturalistic rather than in supernatural terms. It offers men and women, both as individuals and as members of society, a secular ethics grounded in human values. Drawing inspiration from their rationalist and freethinking heritage, Humanists reject absolute authorities and revealed wisdom. Humanists consider human experience to be the only source of knowledge and ethics. Humanists believe in intellectual integrity, and do not allow custom to replace conscience. Humanists promote free inquiry, which is the basis of the scientific spirit. As a living philosophy, Humanism constantly enriches itself with the progress of knowledge. Guided by the spirit of human solidarity, Humanists are committed to tolerant pluralism and human rights. As Humanism is also a philosophy of human freedom, Humanists aim for a social order in which individual freedom and dignity, social justice, fundamental rights and the rule of civilised law are protected. Humanists continuously explore ways of extending responsible freedom and happiness in our increasingly complex world. The social ideal of Humanism is the spread of democratic values resulting in comprehensive social, political and economic democracy. Humanists believe that this can be achieved only with the strength of humanity's own moral and intellectual resources. Humanism seeks to be a modern, cosmopolitan and democratic alternative to traditional religion and to authoritarian and other oppressive social attitudes.

Extraits disponible en Francais

In the following chapters we present a concise history of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU). Fascinating though this history is, for reasons of available space and research time it regrettably was out of the question to write a rigorously thorough and definitive historical study. Instead, we have tried to give a readable mix of what was important and what was interesting. Major developments in IHEU's internal developments alternate with sketches of IHEU's varied activities and impressions of its interaction with the world it was part of. For those who want to know more, we have added a final chapter describing our main sources and giving suggestions for further reading. The main text of the chapters in this part was written by Hans van Deukeren, with topical contributions from Pieter Edelman, Wouter Kuijlman and Jan Loman, all employed at the Humanist Archives. Bert Gasenbeek was directly involved with the concept, content, and conclusions. We thank Levi Fragell, Nettie Klein and Paul Kurtz for their willingness to read and comment on the draft texts-Nettie Klein also volunteered to correct our language errors-, and all the others who supported us in this project. However, for any remaining errors, inaccuracies or debatable views we are, of course, fully responsible.

In August 1952 the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) was founded. At that moment organized modern humanism already had a tradition of at least a hundred years, including other international federations that are reckoned among the humanist tradition. One can discern four 'generations' of modern humanism, originating around 1850, 1890, 1918 and 1945, three of which came together in IHEU in 1952.

Between 1952 and 1962 IHEU developed an effective working organization. In close cooperation with national member organizations several impressive congresses were organized, among which the two world congresses at London (1957) and Oslo (1962) were the most successful and outgoing. International membership and various activities increased and prospered. In spite of all these successes, however, two problems made their first appearance that have persistently troubled IHEU ever since: collecting overdue contributions and getting up to date information from the member organizations.

The 1962 Oslo Congress in some respects marks the coming of age of IHEU. The preceding decade can be characterized as a period of preparation: IHEU's purposes and philosophy had been defined, headquarters had concentrated on exchanging information between member organizations so as to help them in getting to know each other better, a working organization had been built up. At the Oslo Congress enthusiastic and ambitious plans for the future were launched: IHEU should be a kind of command center to stimulate humanism and humanist organizations worldwide. Another sign of IHEU's maturity is that it concentrated increasingly on practical activities instead of theoretical self-definition. Specific projects were set up, such as the Bihar Third World development project and various dialogues; working parties were created to discuss specific areas of practical activity; the frequency of the congresses was increased. A trend from theory to practice is also visible from the central themes that were chosen for the congresses. The period may be divided in two, a subdivision that parallels developments in world history. The 1960s, with its struggle for civil rights in the USA, increasingly comprehensive worldwide student protests, the growth of an independent youth culture, sexual revolution, and decolonization on a global scale, were a period of imagination, new ideas, high expectations. However, 1968 was not only the high point of the 1960s' protest movement, but also the year in which Richard Nixon became president of the USA and, in Czechoslovakia, Dubcek's 'communism with a human face' was crushed. Likewise, 1968 was a turning-point for IHEU. Before 1968 IHEU's membership and budget grew, after 1968 both stabilized. Before 1968 many new activities were started, after 1968 few activities were entirely new. The main exception was the International Humanist Award, which was presented for the first time in 1970.

In 1975 Jaap van Praag resigned as Chairman. The three-headed chair that succeeded him, the so-called Troika, led an IHEU that was at first rather on the defensive. By 1980 IHEU definitely discerned a growing anti-humanist trend in society, an upsurge of authoritarianism, fundamentalism, and orthodoxy. It was the world of Ronald Reagan (1980-1988), Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990), and Leonid Brezhnev (d. 1982). The Board regularly expressed its opinion that humanism was threatened in the world at large, and even chose this to be the main theme of the 1982 World Congress: 'Anti-humanist trends: challenge and response'. This was not the right period for bold initiatives. Instead, IHEU concentrated on creative consolidation. In the late 1970s a whole range of imaginative measures was introduced to strengthen IHEU, and particularly its financial position. These measures paid off remarkably well. By 1979 the financial situation had improved markedly: before that year deficits were the rule, thereafter they became the exception. In addition, from 1981 the number of member organizations began to rise sharply. In the late 1980s the atmosphere became much more optimistic. The congress themes that IHEU chose, express self-confidence and a pro-active stance rather than the defensive 1982 theme. In 1986 the theme was 'Humanists say yes to life', two years later it was 'Building a world community: Humanism in the twenty-first century'. The 1988 congress attracted an unprecedentedly large number of participants. One year later, in 1989, the collapse of Communism opened up decidedly promising vistas for world humanism. The future looked bright again.

In 1989 Soviet Communism crumbled. In June the Chinese leaders had still maintained their position by brutally suppressing a students' revolution at Beijing, but later that year unheard-of consequences of Gorbachev's perestroika and glasnost occurred. First in Poland, then in Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, and most other Soviet satellite states the ruling Communist regimes discovered that their being 'peoples' republics' took on a new meaning: a peoples' revolt broke out that they were not capable of putting down. The Iron Curtain was opened between Hungary and Austria and then, in November, the emblematic Berlin Wall was torn down. In the following years, as the Communist regimes crumbled, long-suppressed tensions became fatal to several countries, and the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia disintegrated into separate autonomous republics. At the time this break-up of Communism seemed a good opportunity for democracy and humanism in Eastern Europe. In the end it was capitalism rather than democracy that profited, and many of the new states turned out to be nationalist and authoritarian. Neither was it realized that humanism and Marxism historically stem from a common root, which means that some weak spots of Marxism might be relevant to humanism as well, as postmodernism would show. But at the time prospects seemed better. In 1989 a humanist-Marxist dialogue was held in Moscow, and in 1991 another was held in Prague. Immediately after the latter conference the annual Board meeting was held. Paul Kurtz opened it by saying: