On Saturday, November 7, 2020, the European Humanist Federation (EHF ) held this year’s General Assembly – as an online meeting, of course, due to the current pandemic situation. An important outcome of the meeting was the election of a new Board.
Katja Labidi (38), who has represented the HVD as Federal Representative for Refugees, Migration and European Issues since 2019, was newly elected. She commented on her election:
“I am very much looking forward to the upcoming tasks at European and international level, where I can represent our humanist values and achieve our common goals. I have set the topic of migration as my personal focus on the EHF Board. Migration is an integral part of European politics and must therefore also be reflected in the EHF’s decisions and objectives. We must raise awareness of the reasons for forced migration and our own responsibility in Europe, not least to counter the worrying success of right-wing populists who want to gain influence in Europe and worldwide with a distorted narrative.”
The HVD Federal Association warmly congratulates Katja Labidi on her election!
Realignment for the EHF
In recent years, the EHF has been strongly supported financially and in terms of personnel by the Walloon atheists(Centre d’Action Laïque, CAL) providing a secretariat for the EHF. In the long term, the EHF sees this as limiting its independence. At the General Assembly last Saturday, it was therefore decided to restructure the organization. Solutions are now being sought to achieve financial independence and at the same time greater integration into the international organization Humanists International. This should also avoid duplicate contacts with European politics.
Katja Labidi emphasized that it was important to her to actively support the innovative process of realigning the EHF and to strengthen Europe-wide cooperation between humanist organizations. “Only if we work closely together at European level can we achieve our common goals in this globalized world,” said Labidi.
