Speaking exclusively to the British Humanist Association (BHA), award-winning author and BHA Distinguished Support Terry Pratchett OBE discusses his views on why it is ethical to allow people to be able to choose to have assisted death, ‘when medicine cannot do any more’. Mr Pratchett recorded his thoughts on film for the BHA, ahead of a vote in the House of Lords on part of the law on assisted dying which, if passed, would remove the threat of prosecution of friends and relatives who those who compassionately accompany terminally ill loved ones abroad to die in a country where assisted dying is legal.

Update: the deadline for signing has passed and the bill did not become law [27 June 2009]. IHEU president, Sonja Eggerickx, has urged the president of the Republic of Lithuania, Valdas Adamkus, to refuse to sign a law that would ban information on homosexuality from schools.

IHEU member organization Swedish Humanist Association has launched a major advertising campaign with an eye-catching take on the Swedish flag and the slogan "God probably doesn't exist".

The first “World Conference on Untouchability” concluded today [10 June 2009] with the launch of a global initiative against caste discrimination. The conference, organized in London on June 9 and 10 by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), brought together nearly a hundred politicians, academics and grass roots leaders to share successful strategies to combat caste discrimination and help the nearly 250 million victims of Untouchability. The conference declaration, passed unanimously, proposes expanding successful grass roots programmes, improving national legislation, and strengthening UN enforcement mechanisms.

In a new 30-minute film, Swedish film maker Henrik Thome tracks IHEU's International Director Babu Gogineni as he and his colleagues visit a village in Nalgonda district in Andhra Pradesh state, where an independent minded Dalit woman was murdered on the pretext that she was a witch. After meeting the victim's family, they start an educational and media initiative in the region to bring the killers of Bhuvanagiri Somamma to justice. After meeting with rationalist Bikshapathy, whose family was made an outcast by fellow Dalits, the team travels to Bidar town in neighbouring Karnataka state where they join Prof. Narendra Nayak, President of the Federation of Indian Rationalists Associations, and rationalists from Tamil Nadu for some spectacular action. Watch this film which premiered at the IHEU's World Conference on Untouchability in London on 10 June 2009 here.

In a remarkable document, IHEU and its member organization the National Secular Society have proposed a wide-ranging list of modern-day human rights issues for the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) in 2010. IHEU and NSS have proposed specific actions in three main focus areas: religious, race and cultural practices; the rights of children; and disadvantage to the non-religious. The full document is available for download.

Hope Knutsson writes: On Wednesday night May 13, 2009 at a monthly board meeting a brilliant idea occurred to the board members of Sidmennt, the Icelandic Ethical Humanist Association, of which I am president. We implemented it in less than 36 hours and have been getting praise from around the world!

More than 200 civil society organizations from 46 countries, including Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Secular, Humanist and Atheist groups, have endorsed a statement jointly sponsored by IHEU, UN Watch, Freedom House and the Becket Fund for Religious Freedom, urging member states of the UN Human Rights Council to reject the resolution: "Combating Defamation of Religions" due to be voted on in Geneva on 26 March 2009.

Imagine that because of your birth you are only allowed to do one job: cleaning up human excrement. Imagine being born into a group that is never allowed to mix with the rest of society. In India, they used to be called “Untouchables” and are now known as “Dalits”. They are, in the most literal sense, outcastes. They have been historically excluded from human society, and deprived of the most basic opportunities.

IHEU has strongly condemned the execution of children in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen and Pakistan and the practice of child marriage. In a statement to the annual meeting on the Rights of the Child held at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, IHEU called the continuation of child marriage "a disgrace" and judicial killing of children "the ultimate barbarity".