Human rights

For the latest news about Leo Igwe in Nigeria, see Think Humanism.

Women with insecure immigration status fleeing violence cannot access the benefits they need to get protection and support. Due to their extreme vulnerability, immediate action is needed; the UK is in breach of its international human rights obligations while this situation persists.

Amnesty UK is organising a mass lobby of parliament on Wednesday November 4th to urge the UK government to ensure equal protection for all women facing violence in the UK. It's hoped that hundreds of people will go to the House of Commons to raise the same concern with their MPs at the same time.

To find out more, go to the Amnesty website.

And if he smite him with an instrument of iron ... the murderer shall surely be put to death (Numbers 35:16).

Amnesty International has issued an urgent appeal for a man facing execution in three weeks' time despite the fact that jurors at his trial consulted passages from the Bible in deciding his fate. Thirty-two-year-old Khristian Oliver is set to be executed in Texas, USA on 5 November. He was sentenced to death in 1999 for a murder committed during a burglary. While deciding whether he should live or die, jurors at his trial consulted copies of the Bible, including text supporting the death penalty, calling into serious question their impartiality.

Read more on the Amnesty UK website.

In response to letters in today’s East Anglian Daily Times (File Attachment: EADT prayer letters.jpg (185 KB) about the nurse facing disciplinary action for praying for a patient, I’ve sent the following reply:

As an old age pensioner I've been around far too long to believe you can change the minds of the god deluded. The sheer implausibility of the supernatural can only be accepted by working it out for yourself, as recalled by the young David Attenborough, now in his eighties, who recently said, "I remember looking at my headmaster delivering a sermon, a classicist, extremely clever … and thinking, he can't really believe all that, can he? How incredible."

The atheist buses will be on the streets this month, challenging lazy assumptions and encouraging people to be open about their skepticism.

Obama takes over in the White House, thrown in the deep end with the economic crisis and the Israelis to deal with, but hopefully better at the job than Bush (no one could be worse, surely).

The economic downturn might prompt people to live more frugally, which will be good for the planet, and might encourage environmentally-friendly innovations.

Humanist Roy Brown attended the 60th anniversary celebration of the Declaration of Human Rights, “expecting to be appalled in equal measure by the extravagance of the surroundings and the hypocrisy of the speeches, but I left both moved and inspired.” Could attempts by Islamic states to set the clock back be thwarted?

We can influence events in 2009 with positive action. You might be surprised by what we can achieve.

Happy New Year!

A Humanist contribution to a Celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights, at the Unitarian Meeting House, Ipswich, 10th December 2008, organised by the local UN Association.

Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Sometimes, when talking to young people about ethical or political issues, I’ve invited them to consider them from a different point of view – that of an interested, intelligent being from another part of the universe. Suppose there were alien anthropologists, or the equivalent, since they wouldn’t restrict themselves to studying one species – ours. What if they came and simply observed human behaviour. What if they came from a planet where there were no wars, where they’d restricted their population and the damage it might do, where they’d established some sort of harmonious relationship with their environment, where everyone regarded him or herself as part of one society, based on their planet, rather than having national or ethnic boundaries. I think they’d probably regard us as a primitive species.

Obama will be President of the US. Although he’s a Christian (an essential qualification, as things stand – no chance of an atheist President, yet), he’s a liberal Christian. Maybe his attitude might be more like that of former President Jimmy Carter, who said, "I was very meticulous in completely separating my religious faith from any element of politics or governance in the White House. I believed in what Thomas Jefferson, one of our founding fathers, said that we should build a wall between Church and state. I worship a prince of peace, not a prince of pre-emptive war."

Religion plays a huge role in US politics. If you didn't watch Channel 4's 'True Stories: Jesus Politics' on 28 October, you have 22 days left to view it online on the Channel 4 website (you'll need broadband and Windows Media Player). The Republican Right has the strongest links to evangelical Christianity - you'd be forgiven for thinking that, as far as George Bush is concerned, God is an American and votes Republican.