On March 29th the NGO Committee on Freedom of Religion and Belief, NY, and the NGO Committee on Human Rights, NY, sponsored a meeting to discuss the topic of blasphemy. The presenters were Austin Dacey from the International Humanist and Ethical Union and Pamela Takiff of Human Rights First.

Thank you Roy for inviting me to make a presentation at this seminar, and thank you friends for coming.

In a speech today (14 March 2012) at the plenary of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, IHEU representative Leo Igwe criticised governments for aiding and abetting belief in witchcraft, leading to the torture and killing of innocent women and children in Africa and around the world.

The Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA) has condemned plans by members of the Ugandan Parliament to fast track legislation that would mandate execution for a wide range of consensual gay relationships. GALHA, an IHEU member organization based in the UK, has joined demands by the international community that Uganda's President Museveni veto the "Kill The Gays" bill, should it be passed in Parliament.

The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) has called on the African Commission on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR) to work for the abolition of blasphemy laws throughout the continent. Speaking on Saturday, April 30th, at the 49th session of the ACHPR in Banjul, The Gambia, IHEU representative Leo Igwe said that blasphemy laws “justify and sanctify tyranny, hatred, intolerance, forced conversion, intimidation and violence.”

Speaking in a dialogue with the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the 16th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva today, 3rd March 2011, IHEU representative Roy Brown condemned the continuing selectivity of the Council, comparing the immediate and excellent response of the Council to the barbarity of the Libyan regime with its lack of effective response to many other crimes against humanity. Brown cited in particular the judicial murder of hundreds of people in Iran and the deaths of more than 200,000 innocent civilians in the Sudan.

To quote the ancient Greek biographer Plutarch, “An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.”  This is also true for the world as a whole.

Leo Igwe, IHEU’s representative for West and Southern Africa, is working to combat widespread human rights abuses caused by belief in sorcery and superstition. On November 11, 2010, he raised the issue of ritual killing and human sacrifice at the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, with the following statement.

Professor Bolaji Idowu in his book, African Traditional Religion: A Definition (1973), said “In Africa, it is idle to begin with the question whether witches exist or not....To Africans of every category, witchcraft is an urgent reality”. Well, while this statement by this foremost scholar might have been true decades ago, when he wrote his seminal book, today it is not.