Around the time that ‪#‎WorldHumanistDay‬ was dawning on the International Date Line, yesterday evening at Geneva we delivered a blistering statement on sexual equality and religion.

"The Catholic Church, represented here [at the Human Rights Council] by the delegation from the Holy See, has a particularly shameful record in this area. Run exclusively by men, it has wielded its significant power and global influence to control women’s reproductive rights and sexual freedom, campaigning to deny women abortion and the use of contraception.

"In many self-described Muslim countries, religion, tradition and culture is used to control and castrate the woman in her sexuality and reproductive rights…"

Read the full statement at the link.

"World Humanist Day is an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the contribution that humanism and humanists have made to the world. That contribution is huge. For many centuries and across the world, humanists have been some of the most significant contributors to human progress and happiness."

A woman who was killed in Bangladesh yesterday was the wife of a senior police officer, known to have been pursuing the Islamist militants behind the machete murders: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/06/world/asia/wife-of-bangladesh-policeman-who-went-after-islamist-militants-is-killed.html. Mahmuda Khanam Mitu (30) was with her young son at the time. She was "stabbed" nine times, and shot in the head. A few hours later, an apparently random Christian man was hacked to death after Sunday church: http://newsweekpakistan.com/christian-hacked-to-death-in-bangladesh/. Why Sunil Gomes (65) was targeted remains unclear - he may have been targeted as a random Christian. ISIS have claimed responsibility only saying it was "part of a series of operations" in Bangladesh. Don't be fooled by the pseudo-military, formal-sounding language that they use to inflate their egos. This is a hateful campaign of serial murder for stupid ideological reasons.

Proud to stand with Humanist Union of Greece Ένωση Ουμανιστών/-τριών Ελλάδας (ΕΝΩ.ΟΥΜ.Ε) and 50+ other orgs to say: The time has come to end Greece's punitive "blasphemy" laws!

The President of the Luxembourg Alliance of Humanists, Atheists and Agnostics (AHA) faces a possible prison sentence and a lawsuit for €30,000 in “damages”, after the term “religious fanatics” appeared in a single post on the organization’s Facebook page. IHEU has called the prosecution “a violation of freedom of expression and opinion”, and is calling for the case to be dropped.

Big thanks to Ros Lyn and Humanist Association of Ghana (HAG) for producing this HAGtivist special podcast with interviews from various representatives at our recent Humanist weekend in Malta!

Today the whole world must stand firm and say: Family planning is good for women, men, children, everyone. It is a RIGHT, not a wrong. #freedomofchoice #familyplanning

What an amazing time! Coverage on a weekend of extraordinary Humanist events in Malta is at the link below, and a full report from the IHEU General Assembly is at: http://buff.ly/1Tu9T2i #Humanists2016

The IHEU is currently meeting in Malta, in conjunction with the European Humanist Federation and the Malta Humanist Association. We are discussing the rise of populism in Europe, the migration crisis, and international strategy for Humanist organizations. You can follow events on Twitter (whether you are a user or not) at http://buff.ly/1WGhsIT. We'll also be announcing the first details for the triennial World Humanist Congress 2017 (in Brazil, next August) which you can now see at the link!