Awards - Humanists International

International Humanist Award

The International Humanist Award recognises outstanding achievements and contributions to the progress and defence of Humanism. The International Humanist Award is usually made during IHEU World Humanist Congress.

1970: Barry Commoner (USA), environmentalist professor
1974: Harold John Blackham (UK), founding member IHEU, IHEU secretary (1952-1966)
1978: Vithal Mahadeo Tarkunde (India), former judge of the Bombay High Court
1982: Kurt Partzsch (Germany), former Minister for Social Affairs
1986: Arnold Clausse (Belgium), professor emeritus of education
1986: The Atheist Centre (India), for pioneering social reform activities
1988: Andrei Sakharov (USSR), nuclear physicist, developer of the hydrogen bomb for the Soviet military, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace
1990: Alexander Dubček (Czechoslovakia), leader of Czechoslovakia during the “Prague Spring” of 1968
1992: Pieter Admiraal (Netherlands), a Dutch anaesthetist, and euthanasia advocate
1999: Professor Paul Kurtz (USA), writer and founder of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
2002: Amartya Sen (India), economist, social theorist, Master of Trinity College (Cambridge), and winner of the 1998 The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel
2005: Jean-Claude Pecker (France), astronomer
2008: Philip Pullman (UK), best-selling author of children’s literature, including “His Dark Materials” trilogy
2011: Sophie in ‘t Veld, (Netherlands) MEP and vice-chair of the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, and PZ Myers (USA), biology professor at University of Minnesota Morris and blogger
2014: Gulalai Ismail (Pakistan), the founder and chair of Aware Girls, a charity which promotes the developmental and human rights of young women in Pakistan and Wole Soyinka (Nigeria), Nobel Prize-winning author

Leo Igwe was presented with the Distinguished Services to Humanism Award 2017 earlier this year, by IHEU president Andrew Copson

Levi Fragell and Sonja Eggerickx, past Presidents of Humanists International

Hope Knutsson receives the Distinguished Service to Humanism Award from Roar Johnsen

Gary McLelland rededicates the posthumous Anti-Superstition Award to Dr Dhabolkhar, who was killed as a result of his humanist activism.

Distinguished Service to Humanism Award

The Distinguished Service to Humanism Award recognises the contributions of Humanist activists to International Humanism and to organised Humanism. This award is usually made at the IHEU General Assembly.

1988: Corliss Lamont; Indumati Parikh; Mathilde Krim
1990: Jean Jacques Amy
1992: Indumati Parikh; Vern Bullough; Nettie Klein
1996: Jim Herrick; James Dilloway
1999: Abe Solomon; Paul Postma
2002: Phil Ward
2005: Barbara Smoker; Marius Dées de Stério
2007: Keith Porteous Wood
2008: Roy W Brown
2011: V B Rawat (India); Narendra Nayak (India); David Pollock (UK)
2012: Margaretha Jones
2013: Josh Kutchinsky
2014: Robbi Robson
2015: Hope Knutsson
2016: Sonja Eggerickx
2017: Leo Igwe
2020: Sudesh Ghoderao; Bert Gasenbeek; Becky Hale
2021: Steven Pinker; Bonya Rafida Ahmed; Shanti Gurung

Other Awards

1978: Special Award for Service to World Humanism: Harold John Blackham; Jaap van Praag; Sidney Scheuer
1988: Humanist Laureate Award: Betty Friedan; Herbert Hauptman; Steve Allen
1988: Humanist of the Year Award: Henry Morgentaler
1992: Distinguished Human Rights Award: Elena Bonner
1996: Humanist Awards: Shulamit Aloni; Taslima Nasrin; Xiao Xuehui
2008: Lifetime Achievement Award: Levi Fragell
2017: Distinguished Services to Anti-Superstition Award: Narendra Dabholkar
2021: Freedom of Thought Award: Mubarak Bala

International Humanist Award

The International Humanist Award recognises outstanding achievements and contributions to the progress and defence of Humanism. The International Humanist Award is usually made during IHEU World Humanist Congress.

Distinguished Service to Humanism Award

Other Awards

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