For the last few weeks Humanists, rationalists and human rights activists have been waging a huge battle against the forces of fundamentalism in Andhra Pradesh in South India. This is a battle that involves all sections of society, including the media, the police, the justice system, aggressive fundamentalists, the Dalai Lama as well as Humanists and rationalists.

Child witchcraft is the superstitious belief that children can be witches and wizards or that infants can or do magically turn themselves into birds or insects to suck blood or mysteriously inflict harm. It is the belief that children have evil powers, which they can use to destroy people, particularly their family or neighbours.

“Blasphemy!” It’s a crime we thought belonged in the history books, even though we knew it still survived in the world’s few remaining theocracies. Yet, to the surprise of many, 2010 began with headlines dominated by blasphemy battles across Europe and at the United Nations.

The Anti-Homosexuality Bill currently before the Ugandan Parliament proposes the death penalty for certain consenting homosexual acts. Sponsored by the Ugandan MP, David Bahati, the Bill is expected to be debated and voted on in the coming weeks.

On Tuesday, January 5 2010, at about 7 am some armed police officers and soldiers led by two local criminals, Edward Uwah and Ethelbert Ugwu, stormed my family compound in Mbaise in Imo state in Southern Nigeria. They arrested me and my aging father. We were detained briefly at the local police station in Ahiazu before we were transfered to the zonal police headquarters in Umuahia.

Following intensive lobbying by the National Secular Society (NSS, an IHEU member organization), the UK’s House of Lords on 2 March 2010 adopted an amendment to the new UK Equality Bill, paving the way for caste discrimination to be made illegal. Lobbying by the NSS was given a new focus by the first international conference on untouchability hosted by the IHEU and held in London last summer.

The UK Government appears to be edging closer to outlawing discrimination on the grounds of caste. It is hoped this can be included in an Equality Bill currently under consideration by Parliament. Caste discrimination provisions were not in the original draft of the bill, and Hindu leaders had claimed that caste discrimination was not a problem in Britain despite substantial evidence to the contrary. But government ministers have indicated an openness to consider the matter as a result of some powerful lobbying.

Nigerian Humanists have won the latest round in an ongoing battle with witch hunters. Today, 4 Feb. 2010, the Federal High Court in Calabar struck out the case brought against Leo Igwe, International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) Representative in West Africa, by Helen Ukpabio of the Liberty Gospel Church.

IHEU representative Leo Igwe reports that the police in Akwa Ibom State in Nigeria have arrested a "prophet" named Gideon Peter over the alleged murder of two children during an attempt to exorcise them of witchcraft. The arrest is positive news for IHEU’s campaign to stamp out child abuse committed by so-called witch hunters.

The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) has joined with more than 100 other groups from more than 20 countries to protest a so-called “global blasphemy law” proposed by the United Nations (UN). Last month, for the first time ever, a UN body proposed a legally-binding treaty to combat the “defamation of religions.”