Atheist Ireland has made a pledge to the United Nations Human Rights 75 initiative to oppose laws against blasphemy and promote freedom of expression. 1. Background to Atheist Ireland Atheist Ireland is a voluntary advocacy group based in Ireland. We have Special Consultative Status at the United Nations. We promote atheism, reason, ...
Over 200 secular activists and groups have called for today, Sunday 3 October, to be recognised as International #SoheilDay in solidarity with Soheil Arabi, an atheist political prisoner in Iran. The campaign is run by Maryam Namazie and Jimmy Bangash of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain. Michael Nugent and ...
Obviously there should have been a transparent procedure to select Ireland’s Special Envoy to the UN on Freedom of Expression. But a more important issue is what does the job consist of, and why was the position created? A Government spokesman said that the Special Envoy would “focus on freedom ...
Atheist Ireland has sent the following letter to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. Dear BAI, We understand that RTE is reporting itself to the BAI for breaching your Code of Programme Standards regarding a comedy sketch broadcast on its New Years Eve Countdown show. While RTE has its own internal ...
The right to freedom of conscience, religion and belief is one of the foundations of a democratic society. We have listed in this article over 150 religions that are recognised in Ireland, and ten nonreligious philosophical convictions that Human Rights law gives the same status as religious beliefs. Many people, ...
RTE, the National Broadcaster, has apologised for any offence that may have been caused by a Waterford Whispers News sketch on New Year’s Eve Countdown show. The Catholic Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin had complained that the item was offensive and blasphemous. Atheist Ireland has written about this issue and you can ...
Catholic Archbishop Eamon Martin has called on RTE to immediately remove a television clip which he says it is offensive, outrageous, and blasphemous. He was complaining about RTE’s New Year’s Eve Countdown Show, which included a mock news review by Waterford Whispers News. The mock news review reported that a ...
We start the new decade with the good news that Ireland no longer has the medieval crime of blasphemy in our laws. Over the Christmas period, President Michael D Higgins signed the Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019, and it has accordingly become law. Atheist Ireland thanks the ...
[David Kaye is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the freedom of opinion and expression. His recommendations form part of this document] Atheist Ireland has made the following submission to the Department of Justice's consultation on hate crime and hate speech laws. We recommend that ...
It is important that Ireland completes the process of removing the crime of blasphemy from our laws as well as our constitution. The Bill designed to do this is currently at the Office of the Attorney General for formal drafting. A report published today on the human rights of non-religious ...