State, Secularism and the Humanist Challenge - Stockholm, Sweden, Friday 10 - Sunday 12 November 2006

Register online at the Humanisterna web site.

Session Themes include Secularism and the Modern State; World Value Survey and the Baltic Sea Region; State and Church in Northern Europe; Secularism, Tolerance and the Freedom of Speech; Humanism and the Media; The Struggle for Moral Education without Religion; The Meaning of Humanism, Secularism, Religion and other Life Stance related concepts.

IHEU is pleased to report on recent, very encouraging discussions with HIVOS as regards future cooperation in the light of IHEU’s new plans for Growth and Development.

The American Humanist Association (AHA) will host the next World Humanist Congress in Washington DC. Plans are now afoot to make the Congress the most successful World Humanist Congress ever with higher levels of attendance and participation from all over the world.

More details of dates and venue will soon be available from IHEU as well as from AHA.

Meanwhile, please

Democrats applaud the fascinating developments unfolding in Nepal for the last two months. A people’s movement with the strength of a tsunami struck the establishment with some very positive results: the Nepalese people are back in the saddle, women are assured 33% representation in all public positions, government will concentrate its energies on social development and safeguarding Human Rights, peace talks are being held with Maoist rebels, the autocratic King has finally been de-fanged, and Nepal has been declared a secular state (page 11). In an age where politicians and technocrats seem to consider people irrelevant, the reassertion of their sovereignty by the people of Nepal is of great significance.

Sonja Eggerickx was elected unopposed as the new President of IHEU at the General Assembly held in April in New York City. IHEU’s first woman President, Sonja was also recently elected President of IHEU’s Belgian member organisation UVV. Fluent in Flemish, French, German and English, Sonja edited the Flemish journal Mores for many years. Professionally Sonja is a Senior Schools Inspector.

Larry Jones (US) is now First Vice President and Rob Buitenweg (Netherlands) was re-elected as a Vice President at the General Assembly. Joining the IHEU Executive Committee is Roar Johnsen who was elected a Vice President. Roar has been active in the Norwegian Humanist Association since 1979 and is President of the Norwegian Humanist Association. Roar has participated in four IHEU Congresses, and has organised the successful Oslo 1986 IHEU World Humanist Congress. Professionally Roar is a consultant specializing in IT Service Management.

Education

I used to be a teacher. And I know that the ideal situation is when pupils attend school to learn. This may seem an obvious reason, but in practice it is different. This is true at least in the Western world, but I guess that kids are kids, youngsters are youngsters, anywhere in the world!

Of course, a lot of them do work and learn and succeed. Some of them are encouraged by their parents to succeed so that they can earn their own living. Others may have had no choice in the matter of the education they received. But in the pursuit of livelihood, it seems that in general the most important reason for obtaining an education is taking a back seat!

Presented to IHEU’s General Assembly on 20 April 2006

IHEU’s Mission

It is usual on these occasions for the President to report on the past year’s activities, but since this is my last General Assembly as President, I thought I should perhaps review what IHEU has achieved during my watch, over the past three years.

IHEU has a three-fold mission:

• To represent the Humanist community internationally, and at institutions such as the United Nations.
• To organise thematic and regional conferences, and the triennial World Humanist Congress
• To help in the growth and development of Humanism and Humanist organisations around the world.

Text of Sonja Eggerickx’s acceptance speech at the IHEU General Assembly after her election as President of IHEU

I want to read two quotes of Jaap Van Praag, from his speech in Amsterdam 1952:

If we are convinced of the necessity to shape humanism and ethical culture as a positive and constructive philosophy of life, we cannot do without an international institution that answers this conviction

The School

For 12 years, from 1979 to 1991, I had the honor and the responsibility of directing the Ethical Culture Fieldston School. Now retired and living in South Carolina, I do manage to keep up with what is happening. For example, when I left, computers were just becoming a regular part of the curriculum. Today, they are as necessary as books and laboratories and as omnipresent. With new needs today’s School is in the midst of a building program that will provide new opportunities for younger teen-agers in 7th and 8th grades in what we call in the US a “middle school.”

The School’s Principles

As a teacher and a long time Humanist involved in the education debates of the last twenty years an important question to me is what would a school based on Humanist principles be like? Our state schools have the problems imposed on them of religious education and school assemblies that are supposed to be of a mainly Christian nature. And our education system, far from being a planned and designed affair has been inherited from the past of class distinction, testing and classifying children and training them for work. In many ways the language of the education debates now has lost it’s grounding in philosophy, the question of why we teach and learn, and instead flounder with questions of efficacy, measurement and effectiveness.