Despite rain and cold, an estimated 20,0000 atheists came to the Washington Mall on March 24 for the biggest ever “coming out party” for non-religious Americans. Organized by one of the International Humanist and Ethical Union’s newest member organizations, American Atheists, the rally was also supported by many other IHEU members including the American Humanist Association, the Council for Secular Humanism, and the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers.

Six billion euros. That's how much the Catholic Church costs Italy every year, according to the first detailed investigation of the impact of state support and tax privileges received by the Church. The findings by Italy’s Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics (UAAR), a member organization of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, were published the day after Italy’s new government announced a budget filled with new taxes and drastic spending cuts.

The campaign to stop the Pope from visiting the UK on a state visit in September is lending its support to a group of local residents in Twickenham, IHEU member the British Humanist Association reports. The local group, “Richmond Coalition against the State Visit” will be protesting against the planned visit of the Pope to Twickenham on 17th September, where the pontiff will talk at St Mary’s University College about his views on Education.

The Council of Australian Humanists (CAHS) meeting in convention, last month in Adelaide, resolved unanimously that: 'CAHS calls on Federal and State governments to withhold support from all future sales exhibitions of armaments.'

Sophie Erskine, IHEU's new intern at the UN Human Rights Council, reports on the annual full-day debate on the Rights of the Child held on 11 March 2009: The debate, held in the United Nation’s dignified ‘Salle des Alliances des Civilisations’, began cheerfully, as the Human Rights Council celebrated the 20th birthday of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

In his inaugural address, the new President of the United States Barack Obama called for a more inclusive and progressive America. The President’s speech suggested a remarkably humanistic agenda, with a commitment to "restore science to its rightful place." Significantly for Humanists, the new President said, "We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers." This is believed to be a first for a United States President.

An audience of nearly 1000 – diplomats, NGO representatives, academics and students – descended on the General Assembly Hall at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on Wednesday to celebrate Human Rights Day, the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Highlight of the afternoon were two presentations by Nobel laureates: Shirin Ebadi, Iranian Human Rights Lawyer and winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, and Wole Soyinka, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

She started speaking quite slowly and even those in the audience aware of her role in life hardly imagined what was to come. Dr Carolyn Porco is only the fourth recipient of the American Humanist Association Isaac Azimov Science Award in the 20 years since its creation in 1988, and this was her acceptance speech.

IHEYO was reborn during the 2002 IHEU World Congress in the Netherlands. Young Humanists from around the world who were present decided they needed an organisation full of energy and vibrancy so that they could meet face-to-face and share ideas, common goals, visions and working structures. Since then IHEYO has held meetings in Germany, Uganda, France, India, Belgium and the USA. We all value the personal contact, which makes us feel much more connected than when we are limited to emails.

IHEU invites applications for funding in the 2008 IHEU-HIVOS grants programme. The deadline for applications was September 30th, 2008. APPLICATIONS HAVE NOW CLOSED. For information about our 2009 grants programme, please monitor this web site or sign up for our email newsletters.