Copyright: (C) BHA 15
The campaign began in September when anyone could submit their ideas for reform to Power2010, The 4,500 received were then deliberated on by a random selection of the public who created a shortlist of 29 key ideas.

BHA Campaigns Officer Pepper Harow stated, ‘The BHA is heavily involved in work that encourages participation and involvement by all individuals at all levels of government. Our local groups and members are hugely active at local level; whether it be joining local coalitions or working with others on equalities and citizens forums. Democracy can only work as a system if it gives people a voice and allows people the freedom to stand up and be counted and this is exactly what this campaign is about.

‘Some of the suggested courses of action from Power2010 are of particular interest to humanists. For example, although the BHA takes no position on a preferred structure to the second chamber, a fully elected second chamber would remove the automatic right for 26 Bishops to sit in the House of Lords, the debate around a Bill of Rights may have important implications for freedom of belief and extending the Freedom of Information Act to cover, for example, the Church of England, would have an effect on the BHA’s campaigning work.

‘The BHA will be encouraging all its members and supporters to take part in the campaign.’]]>
The BHA reported on a previous attack by the church in July, where members stormed a conference on human rights and witchcraft being run by the Nigerian Humanist Movement and the UK charity Stepping Stones Nigeria.After this attack, the church brought proceedings against Mr Igwe and others, arguing that their actions were infringing on the rights of church members to believe in God, Satan and witchcraft. However, on the second day in court, the accusers and their lawyers were not in court so the lawyer leading the defence team asked the court to strike out the case due lack of diligent prosecution. The court granted his request.

BHA Chief Executive Andrew Copson said,‘We are delighted to hear that the case against Leo has been dropped. The case was an obvious attack by the church who felt threatened by the human rights activism of a dedicated team of outstanding individuals who are trying to protect children who are being targeted due to the belief that they are ‘witches.’ Their work will continue and the BHA and other humanist organisations will continue to support them.’]]>
BHA Chief Executive Andrew Copson commented, ‘Cherie Booth’s remarks show a default assumption still made by too many in society that you are a good person if you are religious – that there is something intrinsically and self-evidently good about being religious and, conversely, that if you are non-religious you are somehow less moral. This is an assumption that persists despite there being no evidence whatsoever to support it.

‘Being religious does not endow people with some special morality or goodness unattainable by the rest of us. Evidence shows that being religious is not an especially important indicator of doing good works for others, nor does it make people less likely to commit crime, with the numbers of religious and non-religious people in prison being roughly proportionate to the wider population.

‘As our society has become increasingly non-religious, with laws built on secular principles of equality, human rights and freedom, we have actually seen increasing tolerance, respect and morality, becoming a less violent, less racist and more accommodating society than we ever were a couple of centuries ago, when religiosity was more widespread.’

Notes

For further comment or information, contact Andrew Copson at andrew@humanism.org.uk, 07534 248596, 020 7079 3583.

Prison statistics show that over ¾ of prisoners are reported to have a religion. http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/briefings/snsg-04334.pdf

Religious affiliation makes little difference in terms of volunteering. The 2001 Home Office Citizenship Survey finds that the proportion of people who volunteered and had a religious affiliation is similar to the proportion of people who had no religious affiliation, and this is true of both informal and formal volunteering.

The British Humanist Association (BHA) is the national charity representing and supporting the non-religious and campaigning for an end to religious privilege and discrimination based on religion or belief.
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The news comes during a busy Membership Month in which the BHA has announced that it has doubled in size in the last five years and wants to double again in just half the time.

Stephen told the BHA, ‘At a time when the achievements of the enlightenment are questioned, ridiculed, misunderstood and traduced by those who would reverse the progress of mankind, it is essential to nail one's colours to the mast as a humanist.

‘For me, that is not a turning away from mystery or a cold rational dispute with the numinous and spiritual in life, it is an acceptance of the awesome and splendid responsibility we each have for our own destinies, ethics and morals. I repudiate the authority of churches, revealed texts and vain unsubstantiated assertions and embrace the shared glories of humanity's intellectual and spiritual struggle to understand the universe into which we are born with honesty, openness and faith in our own natures.’

Stephen Fry has long stated his support for Humanism and his personal non-religious beliefs. He was interviewed in New Humanist magazine in 2003 and also discusses his views on God and religion in his autobiography Moab is my Washpot. More recently, he won the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association’s award for services to Humanism and LGBT rights in 2009.

Notes

Find out more about the Membership Drive Month.

The BHA has over 120 Distinguished Supporters. These include cultural figures – authors, artists, actors, comedians – as well as campaigners, scientists, historians, broadcasters and MPs and Peers . Distinguished Supporters’ work with the BHA varies, including attendance at events, speaking engagements, letters to the press on our behalf and activity in Parliament.

The British Humanist Association (BHA) is the national charity representing and supporting the non-religious and campaigning for an end to religious privilege and discrimination based on religion or belief.]]>
Naomi Phillips, BHA Head of Public Affairs, commented, ‘Recent weeks have seen a resurgence in interest in the issue of assisted dying from across the social, media, legal and political spectrum, not least because of recent cases where it has been shown the law is in need of extensive reform. At present, the law does not distinguish between those who compassionately assisted a loved one to die – including accompanying them abroad for a legal assisted death – and those who kill with malicious intent.’

‘We believe that legalisation, with strict safeguards in place, is ethically far preferable than our present law and would be by far the best way to protect vulnerable people. That is why we are urging support for an independent inquiry to examine the evidence relating to a change in the law. Such an inquiry would draw together and examine evidence from jurisdictions where assisted dying is legal, proving invaluable resource to help towards evidence-based policy making on this sensitive issue.’

Notes

The debate is being held in the same week as Sir Terry Pratchett, a distinguished supporter of the BHA, took the Dimbleby Lecture, on the subject of assisted dying. http://www.humanistlife.org.uk/2010/02/shaking-hands-with-death-terry-pratchett-gives-the-dimbleby-lecture/

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Naomi Phillips, BHA Head of Public Affairs said, ‘It comes as no surprise to hear yet more uninformed and homophobic remarks from the Pope and, yet again, he is wrong. Equality laws do not impose unjust restrictions on religious freedom. What the Pope, together with other religious leaders such as the Bishops sitting in our own Parliament are actually seeking, is for religious people to be allowed to discriminate against others in employment, services, education and many other areas, unfettered by the laws that everyone else in society must abide by and respect.’

‘As well as a religious leader, the Pope is a head of state which has been responsible for opposing the distribution of condoms, promoting segregated education, denying abortion to even the most vulnerable women and opposing LGBT rights, including universal decriminalisation of homosexuality. This latest attack on modern, liberal values is yet another reason why we will be opposing the Pope’s State visit to the UK later this year.’

The BHA has set up a Facebook group protesting against the Pope’s State visit. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=140603339279 ]]>
BHA Chief Executive Andrew Copson said, ‘We welcome the fact that the government, along with all those RE professionals involved in producing the new primary curriculum, has once again affirmed that RE is about non-religious worldviews like Humanism as well as about religions.’

The new guidance makes it clear that the co-option of humanists onto SACREs – the local committees that oversee RE in a local authority area – is a practice which helps to improve the quality of RE. It has also removed a previous prohibition on humanists being appointed as full members of SACRES, which had previously prevented many SACREs from making such appointments.

‘We now hope,’ Mr Copson continued, ‘that more and more SACREs and local authorities will see the benefit of appointing humanists as full members. It is unfortunate that the guidance itself has not caught up with the practice of increasing numbers of SACREs and local authorities that are appointing humanists as full members and positively advised that they should do so. Equally, it does not prevent SACREs that wish to promote good RE from making humanists full members which, many of them have accepted, the Human Rights Act has made it possible for them to do.’

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The BHA earlier added their support to science writer Simon Singh who is being sued for libel after writing an article criticising the claims of the British Chiropractic Association.

Chief Executive Andrew Copson said, ‘The BHA is pleased to add their voice to support the Libel Reform Campaign. In an open society, there must be room to have open debates about scientific issues, room to discuss human rights and room to defend free speech.

‘The law in the UK is being used as a tool by people both here and abroad to silence dissent and censor writers and freethinkers. People wishing to discuss medicine, scientific discovery, belief and human rights in the public arena should be able to do so without the threat of censorship and costly legal bills. These laws are outdated and do nothing except protect the powerful from fair and balanced criticism.

‘We have called upon our members and supporters to sign the petition asking for action on this important issue.’ ]]>
Andrew came to the BHA in 2005 and since 2006 he has been coordinating the BHA’s education work, promoting understanding of Humanism as a non-religious worldview, as well as coordinating the BHA's public affairs work. He has written extensively on these issues in the press and many other publications, and is regularly interviewed on radio and television news and current affairs programmes.

BHA Chair Robert Ashby said, ‘Andrew really understands the social and political milieu in which Humanism finds itself and has a track record of hard work and successes over the past years. I am sure that he will address the intellectual, financial and operational challenges of the BHA with his considerable analytical and inter-personal skills. Andrew has the staff, the trustees, the President, Vice- Presidents and all BHA members and supporters right behind him in the tasks ahead.’

In his role as Chief Executive, Andrew will be representing the interests of the ever-growing BHA membership, currently some 10,000 members and thousands more supporters.

Andrew said, ‘I am thrilled to be taking on the role of leading the BHA, which is unique in its aims, experience, reach and representation. There has never been a more exciting time to promote Humanism and work for a world where people are free to live good lives on the basis of reason, experience and shared human values.

‘We need to encourage and support that massive proportion of the population who put human welfare at the heart of their ethics, who find meaning in the realities of existence rather than in their denial, and make the most of the one life they have without reference to a life to come. These humanist values are not only credible and coherent, they have generated some of the greatest achievements of humanity, and should be celebrated and advanced.’

For further information and requests for interviews at naomi@humanism.org.uk or on 020 7079 3585.

Notes

Andrew Copson was appointed by the BHA’s Board of Trustees in November 2009, and took up the post of Chief Executive in January 2010.

Photograph of Andrew Copson attached.

Andrew has been with the BHA since 2005. He graduated from Balliol College, Oxford with a first in Ancient and Modern History and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an Associate of the Centre for Law and Religion at Cardiff University. In addition to his work at the BHA, he is a director of the European Humanist Federation and a representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union to the Council of Europe.

The British Humanist Association is the national charity representing and supporting the interests of ethically concerned, non-religious people in the UK. It is the largest organisation in the UK working to promote Humanism, for an end to religious privilege and to discrimination based on religion or belief, and for an open society and a state that is neutral on matters of religion and belief.
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The EHF was particularly concerned to draw MEPs’ attention to the continuing and often disproportionate influence of religion to politics and society throughout Europe.

Naomi Phillips said, ‘Many of the issues that the BHA works for, such as the teaching of science and the promotion of scientific research unencumbered by religious dogma, equal rights for people regardless of sexuality or belief, and the separation of church and state, are issues shared by humanist organisations across Europe.’

‘When meeting MEPs, we discussed the challenges to the secular principles of the functioning of the European Union, the rise of creationist teaching in schools and impositions on human rights such as freedom of speech and belief in the UK and abroad.’

‘We were delighted with the warm reception we received from MEPs from all different political groups, many of whom were sympathetic to our position. We hope that the issues raised by the EHF will be taken up in the European Parliament and wider.’



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Andrew Copson, BHA Chief Executive, made the point that the BHA’s call also comes in light of new experience over the last few days that has once again highlighted the negative effects of the Bishops’ privileges on British society.

He said, ‘We have only this week seen the damage that can be done by having this undemocratic and discriminatory privilege in our Parliamentary system. It was the votes of the Bishops that swung yesterday’s vote on employment rights of lesbian, gay and bisexual people when working for religious employers. Not only have they painted such equality legislation as an attack on religious freedom, which it is not, but they have created a position where British law may now be in conflict with European legislation, and demonstrated enormous self-interest rather than any attachment to the common good or the public interest.

‘The presence of Church of England Bishops in the House of Lords as of right entrenches a privileged position for one particular branch of one particular religion that cannot be justified in today’s society, which is not only multi-faith but increasingly non-religious.’

The BHA has pledged to work with parliamentarians to seek to address the removal of Bishops in the current Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill.

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The Bill seeks to make Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education, which includes age-appropriate Sex and Relationship Education (SRE), compulsory for the first time in both primary and secondary education.

BHA chief Executive Andrew Copson said, ‘Humanist organisations have championed good sex and relationships education for decades and we welcome that the Bill seeks to ensure PSHE is taught in all state schools. By making PSHE compulsory the Bill will raise standards in many schools up to a level that a large proportion of our schools already provide.

‘We are very concerned however about how the Bill will let schools, and particularly state-funded religious schools, teach about certain issues, such as contraception and different sexualities. We are also very disappointed that the Bill proposes to allow parents to deny their children education about relationships until they are 15.’

BHA campaigner Paul Pettinger added, ‘Good SRE is known to reduce unwanted pregnancies and the spread of sexually transmitted infections, as well as equip young people with the language and tools to be clear about personal boundaries, understand appropriate and inappropriate behaviour and know who to talk to when they need help. For older children it helps them resist pressure, make safe choices and challenge misleading and inappropriate messages about sex in the media. In the context of the conflicting rights of parents to deny their children these lessons and a child’s right to receive education about relationships, the law should firmly support the child and his or her present and future health.’


Notes

For further comment or information, contact Andrew Copson on 020 7079 3583 or 07534 248596.

The British Humanist Association (BHA) is the national charity representing and supporting the non-religious and campaigning for an end to religious privilege and discrimination based on religion or belief.
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BHA Chief Executive Andrew Copson commented, ‘Everyone else is required to treat gay people without discrimination. What the Christian churches fought for and won were special exemptions from that law so that they can treat lesbian and gay people unkindly, unfairly, and discriminate against them. The House of Lords has shamed itself by conspiring in this sort of immorality. We regret it and we hope that those fair-minded parliamentarians and those Christians who have campaigned against this exemption are given a fairer hearing in the future stages of the Bill and that this disgraceful injustice is reversed.’

Responding specifically to the argument of the Archbishop of York that the ability to discriminate against lesbian and gay people was a matter of ‘religious freedom’, Mr Copson continued: ‘Britain has always been a country with more freedom of thought and religion than most but it is a terrible thing to claim that this should mean that laws that apply to everyone else and which are designed to protect vulnerable people should contain within themselves special provisions so that religious people who don’t wish to, do not have to obey them. Our concern should be with the people denied jobs and a livelihood in their chosen profession by the discrimination against them, rather than with securing the right of those who discriminate against them to carry on doing so.’

Naomi Phillips, BHA Head of Public Affairs, added, ‘The BHA has been working with supportive parliamentarians on many issues around the Equality Bill, which gives excessive privileges to religious groups to discriminate against not only gay and lesbian people but against the non-religious and those of other religions.’

The Lords votes mean that British law may now be in conflict with European legislation, meaning that the most probable effect of the amendments will be expensive and time-consuming litigation to untangle the mess the amendments have created.
Notes

For further comment or information, contact Andrew Copson on 07534 248596.

Read the BHA’s briefings on these issues for Lords Committee stages – sexual orientation discrimination and religious discrimination.

Read more about our work on the Equality Bill.

The British Humanist Association (BHA) is the national charity representing and supporting the non-religious and campaigning for an end to religious privilege and discrimination based on religion or belief.]]>
Naomi Phillips, BHA Head of Public Affairs, commented, ‘Being able to die, with dignity, in a manner of our choosing must be understood to be a fundamental human right. It is through legalisation that we can ensure strict legal safeguards are in place; safeguards such as are set out in this Bill. This would increase autonomy by ensuring that people are free from coercion and so are empowered to make rational choices over their end-of-life care, including the choice to have an assisted death if they want.’

‘Further, we believe that legalisation, with strict safeguards in place, is ethically far preferable than our present law and would be by far the best way to protect vulnerable people. We want to see a reformed law throughout the UK.’

Read more about the BHA’s work on reforming the law on assisted dying www.humanism.org.uk/campaigns/ethical-issues/assisted-dying

The British Humanist Association is the national charity representing and supporting the interests of ethically concerned, non-religious people in the UK. It is the largest organisation in the UK campaigning for an end to religious privilege and to discrimination based on religion or belief, and for a secular state
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Commenting on the proposed changes, Naomi Phillips, BHA Head of Public Affairs, said, ‘The BHA’s work for an open and inclusive society, leads us to fight against religious privilege and unjust, unnecessary discrimination. It follows that it is our position that no church or other religious body should have any connection with our constitution, far less an officially established church.’

‘Our commitment to equality, freedom of belief and expression and human rights, therefore also leads us to support reform aimed to tackle the inbuilt gender and religious discrimination in succession to the Crown. Such discrimination is clearly antagonistic to secular, liberal principles and, until such time as our vision for a secular state is realised, it is important to tackle the religious privilege and other discrimination ingrained at the heart of our constitution.’

Notes

For further comment or information, contact Naomi Phillips on 020 7079 3585.

The British Humanist Association represents and supports the non-religious. It is the largest organisation in the UK campaigning for an end to religious privilege and to discrimination based on religion or belief, and for a secular state.]]>
At present, discrimination in employment on grounds protected by equality and human rights law, such as sexual orientation, is permitted in narrow circumstances when the role is “for the purposes of an organised religion”. This would include priests but not accountants or youth workers. However, peers are set to discuss amendments in today’s debates of the Equality Bill in the House of Lords that seek to grant religions even wider exceptions from the law.

Andrew Copson, BHA Chief Executive, said, ‘It is vital that the Government and fair-minded Parliamentarians from all sides do not accede to the demands of this increasingly minority and backwards view. The line being taken – particularly by the Church of England but supported by other illiberal religious groups – seeks to steal away hard fought legal rights to equality, to privacy and to be treated with dignity.

‘It is disheartening that the Government has seemed to bow to pressure from increasingly unshared and bigoted perspectives, tabling an amendment to its own Bill which will prevent gay people from taking up employment in a wide range of posts when the employer is religious – even in such areas as youth work or public relations.’

The BHA has also expressed its deep opposition to proposals to continue to allow discrimination on grounds of religion by religious organisations, even when the organisation in question is provided a state-funded public service.

‘Public services are increasingly contracted to religious organisations, even though many continue to use the exceptions in law to discriminate against staff, because they are not religious or hold the ‘wrong’ religious beliefs,’ continued Mr Copson, ‘Those desperate to retain significant religious privileges through exemptions from our anti-discrimination law will oppose good amendments to the Bill that seek to protect frontline staff, such as care workers and employment advisers, from this unjust religious discrimination.’

For links to briefings and more information, visit www.humanism.org.uk/news]]>
All the money being donated through the fund will go to disaster relief and the new mechanism will remain open for future relief work.

Chief Executive of the British Humanist Association Andrew Copson said, “There is no god or any other outside help for us as human beings but we are not alone, because as human beings we have each other. The incredible response of the general public not just in reaction to the earthquake in Haiti but whenever natural disasters on this scale are brought to their attention, shows that we can rely on each other and that we want to help each other when we are in need.

“Most humanists prefer to work for good causes with others of different beliefs rather than set up their own organisations and they prefer to give through mainstream secular organisations without drawing specific attention to their giving as humanists. But with the frequent implication from many religious sources that to be non-religious is to be uncaring, many people want to demonstrate their concern for others in a way that draws attention to their non-religious ethical motives in doing so.

“What this fund achieves is to allow humanists and other non-religious people to express that their motivations for giving come from a place of human empathy, rather than divine command, while at the same time avoiding the trap of "branding" that gift. Instead all the money donated is being passed on to existing and highly reputable secular charities.”

Notes

Within hours of launching the fund, over $40,000 was raised and the amount continues to climb.

You can donate through Non-Believers Giving Aid

Read more about Humanism and charitable giving

The two chosen beneficiary organisations for the Haiti appeal are Doctors Without Borders (Médecins sans Frontières) and International Red Cross .

For information or comment from the British Humanist Association contact Andrew Copson, email: andrew@humanism.org.uk 020 7079 3584, or 07534 248596.

The British Humanist Association represents and supports the non-religious. It is the largest organisation in the UK campaigning for an end to religious privilege and to discrimination based on religion or belief, and for a secular state.]]>
Speaking to an amendment tabled by the Conservatives, which would take out the term ‘or philosophical’ from the meaning of ‘belief’ in equality legislation , Baroness Thornton, the minister on the Labour frontbench in the Lords for the Equality Bill, stated, ‘Removing protection for philosophical beliefs would mean that acceptable and long-recognised belief systems such as humanism would no longer be protected under law. I am sure that many here in this House would not wish for that – not only those who have humanist beliefs, but those who recognise and appreciate the right of others to be protected for holding that belief.’

Naomi Phillips, BHA Head of Public Affairs, said, ‘We are delighted that the Government, in answering an amendment to its Bill, also agreed that the removal of “or philosophical” would be a retrograde step for equality and human rights, and that it so strongly defended the continued protection of Humanism in domestic law.’
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Asked whether his party would make it a legal requirement for schools, including faith schools, to teach that homosexuality is normal and harmless, he replied: "Yes - and crucially faith schools should have a requirement to have an anti-homophobic bullying policy at their school."

BHA faith schools campaigns officer Paul Pettinger said 'Homophobic bullying is an issue for all schools, but the evidence shows that it has a much higher incidence in faith schools as compared with community schools.'

'Last year the Government announced a number of positive changes to Personal, Social, Health and Economic education. However, we regret that schools will still be allowed to alter their approach to Sex and Relationship Education in accordance with its ethos, and we are particularly concerned how faith schools will now teach about crucial issues, such as different sexualities. We work with our supporters in Parliament, from all Parties, to urge legislative and other changes to tackle homophobia in the education system and elsewhere.'


Notes

Stonewall's 2007 'The School Report' showed that two thirds of young gay people at secondary schools have experienced homophobic bullying, but in faith schools that figure rises to three in four. The report also showed that lesbian and gay pupils who attended faith schools were 23% less likely to report bullying than those at non-faith schools.' http://www.stonewall.org.uk/education_for_all/research/1790.asp

Nick Clegg was interviewed by Attitude Magazine.

For further comment or information, contact Paul Pettinger on 020 7462 4993.]]>
BHA Head of Public Affairs Naomi Phillips said ‘By reason of their belief that this world is the only one we have and that human problems can only be solved by humans, humanists have often been active social reformers. However, the contribution of ethically concerned, non-religious people in the promotion of tolerance, equality, rights, social justice and so forth is sometimes overlooked. Often this will be because humanists make their contribution not as “humanists”, but as socially minded members of society, committed to working with others for the common good.’

‘This debate provides an opportunity for Peers to take into account the work of humanists towards the open, secular, inclusive and equal society.’

Notes

Read more about the humanist tradition.

Read the BHA's briefing for the debate.

The British Humanist Association represents and supports the non-religious. It is the largest organisation in the UK campaigning for an end to religious privilege and to discrimination based on religion or belief, and for a secular state.
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