The aim of Humanists International is to "build, support and represent the global humanist movement, defending human rights, particularly those of
non-religious people, and promoting humanist values world-wide". As a campaigning NGO Humanists International aims "to influence international policy through representation and information, to build the humanist network, and let the world know about the worldview of Humanism." The report examines every country in the world for its record on upholding rights and equality for non-religious people, including
humanists and
atheists. The online edition includes a country chapter for each country in a "Country Index". Humanists International also makes available a downloadable PDF "Key Countries Edition". Humanists International makes the assessment data available under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license.
Findings of the Freedom of Thought Report The report includes maps that colour countries by the most severe boundary condition applied in each category, as well as a "Summary score" based on average severity across all four categories.
Focus of advocacy and campaigns Recurring themes of Humanists International's advocacy and campaigns work include
LGBTI rights and
women's rights,
sexual and reproductive health and rights, laws against
blasphemy and
apostasy,
caste-based discrimination,
slavery, and advocacy of
secularism.
Persecuted non-religious individuals Individuals persecuted for expressing their non-religious views (actual or perceived) have frequently been the subject of IHEU campaigns. Some prominent cases include: • In the 1990s, IHEU was instrumental in highlighting the threats against
Taslima Nasrin who lives in exile from
Bangladesh, and who also acted as a representative of the IHEU at
UNESCO. • The IHEU and
Amnesty International led the campaign in 2004 to try to obtain the release of
Younus Shaikh who was accused of "
blasphemy" in
Pakistan. • In 2013, the IHEU urged the authorities in
Egypt to ensure the safety of
Alber Saber after he was accused of "offending religion" for allegedly linking to the
YouTube video
Innocence of Muslims. • In 2014, the IHEU blew the whistle on the case of
Mubarak Bala from
Nigeria, who was detained in a psychiatric hospital after he talked openly about being an atheist. He was freed following international media coverage. • In 2017, after a government minister in
Malaysia said members of an atheist meetup group would be "hunted down", the IHEU called for respect of the atheists' human rights, and the organization's condemnation of the minister's remarks was reported in Malaysian media. The IHEU delegation at the
United Nations Human Rights Council has repeatedly raised the imprisonment and corporal punishment of
Raif Badawi for "insulting religion", and
Waleed Abulkhair for "disrespecting the authorities", both in
Saudi Arabia. Humanists International similarly highlights cases where individuals are accused of "
apostasy", such as the blogger
Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mkhaitir currently on death row in
Mauritania, and the poet
Ashraf Fayadh currently imprisoned in Saudi Arabia. In June 2016 at the 32nd session of the
Human Rights Council the IHEU's delegate took the unusual step of reading one of Ashraf Fayadh's poems during General Debate.
Bangladesh machete murders Humanists International (then the International Humanist and Ethical Union, IHEU) said it had raised concerns about threats to secular writers and activists in Bangladesh as early as 2006, describing secular intellectuals as being "terrorised" by Islamist fundamentalists. From 2013, as a series of machete attacks targeted secular and atheist bloggers and freethinkers, it issued repeated statements and campaign calls in response and highlighted the killings at the UN Human Rights Council. In early 2013 it responded to the murder of blogger and activist
Ahmed Rajib Haider and the attack on
Asif Mohiuddin, and criticised the subsequent arrest and prosecution of bloggers for "hurting religious sentiments". In 2015–2016 the organisation continued to comment publicly on individual killings and attacks, including the murder of writer
Avijit Roy on 26 February 2015. It also publicised the case of writer
Ananta Bijoy Das, including excerpts from correspondence about his rejected visa application to Sweden, following his murder on 12 May 2015. After a coordinated attack against two separate publishing houses in
Dhaka on 31 October 2015, in which publisher
Faisal Arefin Dipon was killed and publisher
Ahmedur Rashid Chowdhury was seriously injured, the organisation published an interview with Chowdhury about the attack and his escape to Norway. It coordinated a coalition open letter calling on the Bangladeshi government to protect threatened writers and repeal laws used against secular bloggers; the initiative was also reported by
bdnews24.com. Humanists International and partner organisations organised solidarity events abroad, including a "solidarity book fair" in The Hague held alongside the annual
Ekushey Book Fair in Dhaka. After further killings in 2016, its president Andrew Copson warned that unless the government defended free expression, "the only voices that will be heard will be those of murderous extremists".
End Blasphemy Laws campaign In January 2015, in part as a response to the
Charlie Hebdo shooting, Humanists International alongside other transnational secular groups the
European Humanist Federation and
Atheist Alliance International and a two-hundred strong organisational coalition, founded the End Blasphemy Laws Campaign. End Blasphemy Laws is "campaigning to repeal "blasphemy" and related laws worldwide."
Other campaigns The "First World Conference on Untouchability" was organised by Humanists International in
London, June 2009. Anticipating the event, the
BBC News quoted then-Executive Director as saying that legal reforms alone would not end caste discrimination: "There are Dalit politicians in India, but nothing has changed. The answer is to educate Dalits and empower them." The event was preceded by questions in the
UK Parliament and guests included
Lord Desai and
Lord Avebury from the UK
House of Lords;
Binod Pahadi, Member of the
Constituent Assembly, Nepal; and Tina Ramirez, US Congressional Fellow on International Religious Freedom. In 2013, Humanists International criticized the US-based
Appeal of Conscience Foundation for awarding their "World Statesman Award" to then-president of
Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono; it argued that the award "is a slap in the face to prisoners of conscience across the world. While
Alexander Aan suffers in an Indonesian jail for posting his beliefs to Facebook, his jailer will be honored in New York as a champion of freedom of belief." A year later, Humanists International as part of a "coalition of secular groups" led a campaign around the hashtag "#TwitterTheocracy" to protest the social media website
Twitter's implementation of tools blocking "blasphemous" tweets in
Pakistan. == Historical dates and figures ==