HVD welcomes the march for a secular Europe

Next Saturday, the March for a Secular Europe will take place in the British capital. In the morning, the march is to lead through central London for around two hours, ending with a final rally near Downing Street. “We very much welcome the initiative in the UK,” commented Frieder Otto Wolf yesterday on behalf of the Executive Committee of the Humanist Association of Germany (HVD). “There is still an urgent need to draw attention to the issues raised,” Wolf continued. The demonstration is intended to raise awareness of the central importance of freedom of religion and conscience as well as freedom of opinion and speech for European societies. The people taking part also want to promote further advocacy for equal rights for women and people with non-heterosexual identities in the European Union, the right to self-determined reproduction, general laws without religious exemptions and state neutrality in the area of religion and belief. The aim is to develop a democratic, open and just Europe that is immune to the secret influence of organizations of a religious or other nature. The protests will express criticism of the privileged status of churches under Article 17 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the privileged status of religious organizations in politics and in law, as well as the existence of state-funded denominational schools. They are also directed against the Vatican’s special status at the United Nations, its economic privileges and its political influence. Frieder Otto Wolf emphasized that the protests in London are not seeking to ban ideological views from the public sphere. Wolf: “Rather, the march is campaigning for one-sided privilege to be replaced by fair and equal treatment and for illegitimate conditions to finally be eliminated through reforms that are necessary from an enlightened and secular perspective.” The initiators of the March for a Secular Europe are the British Humanist Association and the National Secular Society. The umbrella organizations International Humanist and Ethical Union and the European Humanist Federation are supporting the event. They represent several dozen secular and humanist organizations from many European countries, including the HVD.