Humanists International calls for reaffirmation of rights of non-religious at OSCE

At the Warsaw Human Dimension Conference, Humanists International has asked OSCE participating States to recognize that the right to freedom of religion or belief protects the non-religious and to abolish “blasphemy” laws, including those left unenforced on the statute book.

The statement was delivered on 7 October by the organization’s Senior Advocacy Officer, Leon Langdon, at the Warsaw Human Dimension Conference, convened by the Swiss Chairperson in Office at the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe. The plenary concerned fundamental freedoms, including the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, or belief and human rights defenders.

OSCE work on freedom of religion or belief since the Helsinki Final Act of 1975 mirrors the UN framework, the statement said, in affirming that the right includes changing or leaving a religion, holding a non-religious belief, or holding no belief at all.

For the non-religious, restrictions tend to fall on expression, recognition, and public life. “Blasphemy” laws, often used against them, remain on the statute book in many parts of the OSCE region, including in Western European States, and the OSCE has itself recognized that such laws contravene international law and are bad for security.

Humanists are also prominent among those who defend other people: migrants, religious or belief minorities, people exercising their reproductive rights, and LGBTI+ communities. Where that solidarity is criminalized, Humanists International argued, so is the way humanists act on their beliefs. Humanists who protect, promote, and defend the rights of others are legitimate human rights defenders and should be recognized and treated as such.

This was illustrated in the statement with reference to the trial of Panayote Dimitras, co-founder of the Humanist Union of Greece, and his co-defendant Tommy Olsen, which opened on 6 October on charges including participation in a criminal organization and facilitating unlawful entry. Dimitras has faced a years-long judicial harassment campaign. Humanists International called on Greece to drop the charges, lift the restrictions imposed on the two men, and end the harassment of human rights defenders.

The intervention continues re-engagement with the OSCE which was reintroduced to the organization’s workstreams last year. At the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in September 2018, Humanists International called on participating States to repeal “blasphemy” laws, counting 15 OSCE countries that retained them and naming Russia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, and Greece among those that had used them to imprison people. Greece repealed its own provision the following year. At a Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting on democratic law-making in April 2021, it argued that neutrality between religions and beliefs is the model that best serves human rights.

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