The Evangelical Reformed Church of Neuchâtel decided on 25 January to restrict the use of its temples to religious activities and cultural, public and political events. It had been customary for the temples to be lent out for humanist ceremonies accompanying weddings or deaths. legal privileges for christian denominations… This (...)

On 12 February, scientists and activists celebrate Darwin’s Day! The great biologist Charles Darwin was born on this day in 1809. It is an opportunity for numerous initiatives in favour of education to science, to explain evolutionary theory and fight creationist obscurantism. The website DarwinDay lists many of the initiatives (...)

The European Secularist Network welcomes the clear commitment of the European Parliament to the universality of the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, following some of our demands. Growing persecution of the non-religious In its report adopted on 18 January, the Parliament stressed that “freedom of thought, conscience, (...)

The International Human Rights Day takes place in a context of struggles for fundamental rights, in particular for gender equality. Battles against dictatorial and fundamentalist regimes are waged in the name of the universality of human rights, as proclaimed by the Universal Declaration, whose adoption we celebrate on this 10 (...)

Secularists are campaigning for an end to non-stun slaughter, or at least for its strict limitation and reliable consumer information. Here are several papers and analyses from member organisations of the European Secularist Network. Belgium: the Centre d’action laïque recalls the primacy of civil law over religious precepts. France: the (...)

In a ruling handed down on 13 October 2022, the European Court of Human Rights found that France had violated the right to freedom of expression of Eloïse Bouton, at the time an activist of the Femen movement. This is an important victory for freedoms, against disproportionate State repression. The (...)

Secularist news from the UK Whatever one’s view about the monarchy, it is nonsensical for a head of state to swear to uphold a Catholic-free monarchy and protect the unjustifiable privileges of the Church of England. Or for the head of state to be ex officio the Church’s Supreme Governor (...)

Two years ago, on 16 October 2020, Samuel Paty was murdered by an Islamist fanatic, beheaded in front of his school. This history and geography teacher in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine died for doing his job: educating his students to exercise their freedom and reason, through the acquisition of knowledge and the exercise (...)

The European Parliament has just made it clear that after years of rule by Viktor Orban’s regime, Hungary is no longer a democracy, but a “hybrid regime of electoral autocracy”, where fundamental rights and principles are under threat.                The European Secularist Network has always warned against the risks (...)

The European Secularist Network strongly and unequivocally condemns the assassination attempt against Salman Rushdie, and expresses solidarity with him. This cowardly aggression, motivated by religious fanaticism, is an attack on hard-won freedoms: freedom of thought and conscience, freedom of expression, and the freedom of human creation. These freedoms cannot flourish (...)

Justyna Wydrzyńska, one of the founders of the Polish collective Abortion Dream Team (ADT), is being prosecuted, and faces three years in prison, simply for providing abortion medicines. In 2020, as strict confinement measures are implemented, making travel difficult, Anna, a twelve-week pregnant woman, victim of a violent and tyrannical (...)

4 July 2022 During a meeting with the President of the European Parliament, the President of COMECE “expressed the concerns of the Catholic Church for the way the issue of abortion is treated at the EU level”, and stated that “attempting to introduce a supposed right to abortion in the (...)