Fri, 13th Feb 2026 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child calls for reparations for victims and an end to religious exemptions to mandatory reporting The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has endorsed National Secular Society recommendations to tackle clerical abuse in Spain. The committee oversees Read more…
An article by Keith Porteous Wood was published on the NSS website https://www.secularism.org.uk/opinion/2026/01/frances-rocky-road-to-the-separation-of-church-and-state Posted: Tue, 6th Jan 2026 by Keith Porteous Wood Despite achieving constitutional separation from the Catholic Church after much bloodshed, the French state is still subservient to the Church when it comes to child abuse, says Keith Read more…
Friends, Citizens, Comrades, I bring you fraternal greetings from the International Association of Free Thought, reconstituted in Oslo in 2011. This International Free Thought Association has a presence on every continent and is permanently represented at the United Nations International Commission on Human Rights and the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Read more…
It is with great emotion and fighting spirit that we are gathered here this afternoon for this joint meeting. After this morning’s rich debates, organised on the initiative of La Vigie de la Laïcité (The Secularism Watchdog) and hosted by the Grand Lodge of France, we are now gathered here Read more…
Today’s meeting is a major clarification exercise. It reveals the reality of the secular movement: it is a social and democratic movement, deeply committed to individual and collective freedoms and social rights; it is an anti-racist and profoundly international movement because its cause is universal: that of human freedom and Read more…
Dear friends and comrades It is with great pride that I am here today to commemorate the 120th anniversary of the law separating Church and State in France, a law which, fifty years ago, was a beacon of enormous importance in helping to enshrine this same principle in the Portuguese Read more…
DECEMBER 2025 As a Francophile, I was surprised and horrified to find through my work on clerical child abuse, largely for the United Nations, irrefutable evidence that the French state is institutionally subservient to the Catholic Church.i Despite the mountain of evidence of clerical child sexual abuse, both Houses of Read more…
‘We Are Teaching the World’: The Decline and Fall of James Madison’s Vision of the Secular State in the USA Robert Boston, senior adviser Americans United for Separation of Church and State Dec. 6, 2025 James Madison is one of the most important figures in American history – especially when Read more…
Yvan Dheur – Humanists International We are living in a time of profound paradox. All over the world, a silent revolution is taking place in the privacy of people’s consciences. Whether we choose to call ourselves secularists, freethinkers, atheists, humanists or secularists, we now represent the fastest growing philosophical and Read more…
The celebration of the 120th anniversary of the Law of 9 December 1905 on the Separation of Church and State gives the associations that signed this text an opportunity to reiterate how essential secularism is to the organisation of democratic life. They thus echo the intention of the Constitution, which Read more…