Luxembourgish humanists donate £900 to the Protect Humanists At Risk campaign, for the second time in three years

For the second time in three years, our Member AHA Luxembourg donated £900 to support the #ProtectHumanistsAtRisk campaign. “We want to help protect those individuals who fear for their life when exercising their fundamental human rights”, said Bob Reuter, the President of the organization.

On 29 June, Humanists International launched its annual fundraising campaign to raise £25,000 needed to assist humanists who risk their lives to defend humanist values in their countries. In just one month, we managed to raise more than £9,000. Our Member Alliance of Humanists, Atheists and Agnostics (AHA Luxembourg) is among the many supporters and organizations that replied to the appeal.

This is not the first time that AHA Luxembourg supports our work to protect humanists at risk. In October 2019, in fact, AHA Luxembourg donated €1,000 to the same campaign, as shown in the photo below.

AHA Luxembourg’s donation to the Protect Humanists At Risk campaign in 2019

Bob Reuter, President of AHA Luxembourg, explained the reason why his organisation supported the campaign for the second time in three years:

“Humanism is about speaking our minds freely and openly. All ideas should be open for debate. Ideas are not untouchable. This is what brings us forward, in science, in politics and in society, the open debate of ideas.

“We are lucky and thankful to live in an open society, where everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression as well as the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. However, in many countries people still put themselves and their families at risk when they openly criticise prevailing religious dogmas. We want to help protect those individuals who fear for their life, their liberty and their security of person when exercising their fundamental human rights.

“We are especially concerned about the safety of Mubarak Bala, president of the Humanist Association in Nigeria, who has been in detention, since 28 April 2020, because he peacefully exercised his right to freedom of expression and religion or belief. We are also worried about the signal that such imprisonments send to humanists all over the world. Some may choose to remain silent when faced with potential charges of blasphemy and offending religious feelings. This would hurt us all, because it puts the respect for certain ideas over the welfare of human beings.”