GALHA was represented at the 50th Anniversary World Humanist Congress which took place from 3 to 6 July 2002 at the NH Leeuwenhorst Hotel near the seaside resort of Noordwijk in The Netherlands. Organised by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), to which GALHA is affiliated, the congress theme was Human Diversity, Human Rights and Humanism “All Different, All Equal”.
The wide variety of workshops held at the congress included one on “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trangender Emancipation”, where speakers included representatives from the Rainbow Project in Namibia.
I was the group’s official delegate and was accompanied by fellow committee member Roy Saich. Another committee member, Dean Braithwaite, was the GALHA delegate at the International Humanist Youth Conference which ran in parallel with the congress.
GALHA had a stall at the congress and a social get-together and dinner was arranged for members attending it.
Among the well-known Humanists taking part in the congress was Taslima Nasrin, the feminist journalist and novelist who was forced to flee her native country Bangladesh following death threats from Islamic fanatics. Now a Swedish citizen, she is pictured here with Carl-Johan Kleberg, the chairperson of Humanisterna (the Swedish Humanist Association) and a longstanding member of GALHA, and myself.