May 22nd, 2020
An education pamphlet, endorsed by religious leaders from the Charedi Jewish community, recommends physical punishment and humiliation of children in schools an independent inquiry has heard. Humanists UK, which campaigns for the rights and interests of children irrespective of their religious background, has expressed alarm at the document and the fact that corporal punishment appears […]
May 21st, 2020
To mark our Humanism At Home series, we’re sharing a key note lecture delivered by Professor Alice Roberts, at the Humanists UK Convention 2019. Humanists UK President Professor Alice Roberts takes us on a personal exploration of Margaret Knight’s 1950s radio essay series, ‘Morals Without Religion’, to examine changing attitudes to, and controversies around, the […]
May 20th, 2020
A new opt-out organ donation law that will automatically consider adults to be organ donors when they die comes into effect in England today. Humanists UK, which lobbied for the change for over a decade, has welcomed the new law, saying it is ‘likely to save thousands of lives’ by dramatically increasing the number of […]
May 18th, 2020
TAKE ACTION: If you are a parent whose child has been disadvantaged by religiously selective admissions policies, please respond to the Sutton Trust consultation by 28 July 2020. You can read Humanists UK’s full consultation response to give you some ideas, but please adapt it in line with your personal experiences. Humanists UK has told […]
May 13th, 2020
Each year, Dying Matters Awareness Week aims to raise public awareness about the importance of talking more openly about dying, death, and grief. Below is a blog article originally published on the website of our Chief Executive, Andrew Copson. It’s apt that the theme of this year’s Dying Matters Awareness Week is ‘Dying to be […]
May 12th, 2020
Humanists UK has told the Government it strongly supports proposed changes to the law that will make it more difficult for illegal religious schools to operate. In a response to the Regulating Independent Educational Institutions consultation, Humanists UK said it welcomed proposals that will make it easier to inspect, close, and prosecute the providers of […]
May 8th, 2020
Philosopher and patron of Humanists UK, Alan Haworth, discusses his view on liberty, equality, and fraternity whilst the country remains in lockdown. You can keep up with our various Humanism At Home posts by following the #HumanismAtHome hashtag on Twitter and on Facebook, and by following the Humanists UK Soundcloud and YouTube accounts. If you don’t believe in God you must also […]
May 5th, 2020
The Welsh Government has today announced plans to allow parents of children at faith schools to demand fully inclusive, pluralistic religious education instead of a faith-based version of the subject. Humanists UK – which has long campaigned for non-religious perspectives like humanism to be included on an equal footing with religions on the RE curriculum […]
May 1st, 2020
This week, the new government-funded home learning platform Oak National Academy held the first in a series of online assemblies. It included a message from Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. In addition to assemblies to be presented by a ‘range of well-known faces’, the Church of England has partnered with Oak to provide separate weekly […]
April 30th, 2020
Professors Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson are social epidemiologists. Below is a transcript of their recording for our Humanism At Home series on ‘Inequality & changing social behaviours during the coronavirus crisis‘. You can keep up with our various Humanism At Home posts by following the #HumanismAtHome hashtag on Twitter and on Facebook, and by following the Humanists […]
April 29th, 2020
Humanists UK has called for the urgent release of the President of Nigerian Humanists, Mubarak Bala, who has been arrested and charged on account of his humanist activism in the Nigerian state of Kaduna. The arrest comes following a pattern of online and physical harassment, culminating in a legal petition to the police accusing him […]
April 27th, 2020
The chair of the Education Select Committee today defended the actions of a school caught red-handed censoring history and science textbooks, as well as abuse helpline information, and accused Ofsted of going into religious schools with ‘a very heavy hand’ and ‘without any understanding of the needs and beliefs of faith communities.’ Questioning Chief Inspector […]
