Review by Ann Pickering
On Thursday 3rd November 2022 we were lucky to have a presentation by Richy Thompson, Director of Public Affairs & Policy at Humanists UK, in which he explained how the six main Humanist UK campaigns are all in essence campaigns for human rights. Taking each campaign in turn:
Humanists at Risk Around the World – working with other international bodies, Humanists UK campaigns for freedom of religious beliefs. Of particular interest are those individuals, Mubarak Bala among them, who have been imprisoned for rejecting Islam. Humanists UK campaigns for their release.
Legal Recognition of Humanist Marriages – there’s been considerable progress in this area with Humanists UK making successful legal challenges in several jurisdictions to the idea that you can only marry in religious or civil ceremonies. Humanist marriages are now legal in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands, only England and Wales lags behind. Richy was proud to report the considerable progress in Scotland where there are now more Humanist marriages than Christian ones.
Faith Schools – Humanists UK reviews and shares the research that shows the harm to children in illegal faith schools and lobbies the government to close these schools. Humanists UK believes that all faith school breach human rights because they indoctrinate children and that children should have the right to make up their own minds, as adults, to which faith, if any, they wish to follow.
Religious Education and Collective Worship – the law in UK still requires schools to engage in a daily act of Christian collective worship. Humanists UK thinks this breaches the human right to freedom of religious expression and continues to campaign for a change in the law.
Northern Ireland Blasphemy Law – Northern Ireland is the last part of the UK which has a crime of blasphemy, Humanists UK having successfully campaigned for the repeal of legislation in other parts of the UK’s jurisdiction. Progress in Northern Ireland is hampered by there being no sitting Northern Ireland Assembly. The abolition of blasphemy is popular with Northern Ireland MPs and should eventually progress.
Assisted Dying – for Humanists UK, this is simply about the freedom of choice and therefore a basic human right. So far, Humanists UK-led legal challenges have not been successful, although it now appears that Jersey may be the first UK jurisdiction to change their legislation. There are also bills in discussion in Scotland and the Isle of Mann. Humanists UK’s work has been pivotal in shifting the stance of the medical bodies; the BMA have removed their opposition to assisted dying and the Royal College of GPs now has a neutral stance.
Richy ended the presentation to discuss two other issues which Humanists UK are campaigning on:
Abortion
Since Roe v Wade was overturned in the US removing the right of women to have an abortion, there has been a sense in the UK that we too cannot take a range of human rights for granted. At the 2022 International Ministerial Conference, 27 counties signed up to a far reaching statement supporting woman reproductive rights. Worryingly, the UK then unilaterally changed the wording of their statement and a highly published international spat ensued. Humanists UK drew focus on this.
Bill of Rights Bill
This bill covered a raff of legislation concerning rights and freedoms which was promoted by the Tory Minister Dominic Raab when he was the justice secretary. Its central purpose was to replace the Human Rights Act and to restore the UK parliament as the sole legislator for human rights matters. Various freedoms were seen as threatened. The bill has now been scraped as not fit for purpose with the government proposing instead to bring forward legislation covered by the bill in a more piecemeal fashion. This is good news for those campaigning against the bill; Humanists UK will continue their scrutiny of future proposed legislation.
