According to the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, European policies of multiculturalism have “utterly failed”. Certainly, when intolerance and discrimination are allowed to thrive in the name of multiculturalism, something has gone seriously wrong. According to IHEU representative Roy Brown, speaking in reply to the presentation of a report to the Human Rights Council on contemporary forms of racism, turning a blind eye to the oppression of women in Europe’s minority communities is itself a form of racism.

The 57 Islamic States and their allies have for several years been pushing the Human Rights Council to tighten international law on freedom of expression by introducing “complementary standards” needed, they claim, to combat new abuses of freedom of expression such as “Islamophobia”. Yet in many Islamic States incitement to religious hatred is allowed to go unchallenged.

Speaking at the 18th session of the UN Human Rights Council on 23 September, IHEU representative Cathy Buchs condemned the Vatican for attempting to undermine democracy and human rights by insisting that child abuse cases be judged under the churches' own rules of canon law rather than the laws of the state.

IHEU representative Hannah Bock raised two examples of traditional practices that are continuing to impede efforts to reduce maternal mortality: child marriage in Afghanistan and the forced feeding of young girls in Mauritania.

Speaking at the Human Rights Council in Geneva today (12 September 2011), IHEU representative Hannah Bock called on religious leaders around the world to make it clear "again and again and again that no religion justifies the taking of innocent life.  It is the great tragedy of our time that, worldwide, we are confronted by those who believe it is".

The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) has gained an unexpected ally in its criticism of the Roman Catholic Church’s abuse of children: the prime minister of Ireland. Condemning the Catholic Church’s “frankly brazen disregard” for child protection, Enda Kenny, Ireland’s Taoiseach (Prime Minister), said: “The rape and torture of children were downplayed or ‘managed’ to uphold instead, the primacy of the institution, its power, standing and ‘reputation’.”

The UK gay Humanist charity the Pink Triangle Trust (PTT) has warmly welcomed the UN Human Rights Council resolution on sexual orientation. It is the first UN resolution ever to bring specific focus to human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

12 April 2011

Combating intolerance, negative stereotyping and stigmatization of, and discrimination, incitement to violence and violence against, persons based on religion or belief

The Human Rights Council,

A. C. Grayling, the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) representative to the UN Human Rights Council, has been appointed the new president of the British Humanist Association (BHA). A renowned philosopher, broadcaster and author, Anthony Grayling is the first academic philosopher to hold the office since A J Ayer in the 1960s. Grayling succeeds journalist, broadcaster, and social justice campaigner Polly Toynbee to take up the position from July 2011 and will serve a two-year term as the Association’s eleventh president.

In October 2010, the UN Human Rights Council working group on the implementation of the Durban Declaration and Program of Action held a two-week workshop which discussed, inter alia, “structural discrimination”. The report of that workshop was presented to the plenary of the Human Rights Council on 22 March 2011. Strangely, the report contained no mention of what is unquestionably the most widespread, pernicious and deeply-rooted example of structural discrimination on Earth: I refer of course to the caste system.