Women

Humanist Women's International Network

The purposes of the Humanist Women's International Network are to:

  • Promote women's rights, empowerment and development within the UN system and the international community
  • Challenge women's subservience in the world's religions
  • Promote and encourage humanist women to participate in their national women's lobby and governmental agencies
  • Put gender on the agenda of humanist organisations
  • Promote and encourage women to take leadership positions within their national humanist organisations

The policy priorities for the Humanist Women's International Network are:

Humanist Women are welcome to subscribe to a regular network newsletter, to become active in their local or national Humanist organisation, and to contact the Women's Network Co-ordinators if they would like to get involved.

Women in the 21st century

Mall, Sangeeta

There was a time, as late as the early twentieth century, when women in the west weren’t allowed to vote, when leading universities like Cambridge and Harvard didn’t give them equal status (women students went to Radcliffe, not Harvard, and Cambridge didn’t give out degrees to women students till 1947, though they were allowed to sit for exams!) and when their main role was to be a homemaker

Watering-down of Protection for Gay People 'shames' Parliament

 United Kingdom

The British Humanist Association (BHA) has condemned votes in the House of Lords last night, January 25, which removed the requirement for discrimination against gay people by religious organisations to be "proportionate."

IHEU condemns Sudan and Iran for using rape as a "political weapon"

UN Geneva  Iran  Sub-Saharan Africa

Speaking in the plenary debate at the Human Rights Council on 30 September on the Rights of Women, IHEU representative Cathy Buchs condemned the increasing use of rape as a political weapon in Sudan, Iran and other States, contrasting this with the “perverted sense of morality” that condemned 10 women to being whipped in Sudan for wearing trousers.

The UN and rights for women

UN Geneva

From its very beginning, the UN has had a commitment to the equality of women. Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:

UN adopts resolution on preventable maternal mortality

UN Geneva

The UN Human Rights Council has adopted the attached resolution on Preventable Maternal Mortality. The text of the speech given by Anthony Grayling on behalf of IHEU in support of this resolution is also attached.

A.C. Grayling speaks for IHEU at UN Human Rights Council

UN Geneva  New Zealand

In a speech to the Human Rights Council on 16 June on behalf of IHEU, Professor Anthony Grayling called upon the international community to give far greater attention to the 1,500 maternity-related deaths that occur every day – the vast majority of the preventable. “We believe that wider recognition that this is indeed a human rights issue will provide additional momentum to efforts to reduce this appalling death toll.” (Pictures added.)

Women and the Millennium Development Goals

In the year 2000, at the historic moment we called the Millennium, the UN undertook an ambitious programme. All of the UN member states agreed to a challenge to meet the basic needs of the globe within 15 years.

Female genital mutilation

UN Geneva

ASSOCIATION FOR WORLD EDUCATION
Joint statement with International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), and
World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ)

UN Human Rights Council –10th session (2-26 March 2009)
By representative David G. Littman, read by Roy W Brown, Monday 16 March 2009

IHEU defends rights of women and attacks censorship at the UN

UN Geneva  Iran  Pakistan

In a joint statement with Center for Inquiry, IHEU has condemned abuses of women's human rights, including child marriage and "honour" killings, especially in Pakistan and Iran. IHEU also attacked the culture of censorship that now prevails in the Human Rights Council.

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