Atheist Ireland | Campaigns Archives

04/09/2020 1 Comment Atheist Ireland

Civil Registration Amendment Act discriminates on religious grounds

The Civil Registration Amendment Act 2012 is the most overtly discriminatory law that has been passed since Atheist Ireland was founded. Atheist Ireland has raised the religious discrimination in the Civil Registration Amendment Act 2012 in our Submission to the UN Human Rights committee. Ireland is up before the Committee ...

21/06/2020 Atheist Ireland

Protect Humanists at Risk 2020

Many atheists and humanists across the world cannot live freely in accordance with their values. As well as campaigning politically in Ireland, Atheist Ireland campaigns as a member of Humanists International to protect people at risk of persecution around the world. When we led the successful campaign to remove the ...

25/10/2019 Atheist Ireland

Hate speech review must not reintroduce blasphemy by another name

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, David Kaye, has told the UN General Assembly that there is no ‘heckler’s veto’ in international human rights law. His Report gives conclusions and recommendations for how States and Companies should approach online hate speech. Some of his key points are: Offline human ...

17/08/2019 Atheist Ireland

Atheist Ireland supports the campaign to free Iranian blogger Soheil Arabi

Soheil Arabi is a 33-year-old Iranian blogger with a young daughter. He has been jailed and tortured since his arrest in 2013 for criticising Islam on Facebook. He was originally sentenced to death, which was revised on appeal to seven and a half years in prison plus thirty lashes if ...

04/04/2019 Atheist Ireland

Conscientious atheists again excluded from new Irish Council of State

President Michael D Higgins has today appointed seven citizens to the Council of State, which advises the President on various issues. Again, these appointments have excluded conscientious atheists as candidates. This is because, in order to take office as members of the Council of State (or President, or a Judge) ...

29/03/2019 Atheist Ireland

Speech in Poland – Review of the Campaign Against the Irish Blasphemy Law

Michael Nugent gave this speech today, Friday 29 March 2019, at the Days of Atheism Conference in Warsaw, Poland. When Atheist Ireland was founded ten years ago, our first task was simply to normalise the use of the words atheism and secularism in public debate. We have come a long ...

28/03/2019 Atheist Ireland

Atheist Ireland calls for stronger regulation of funding of political campaigns

Atheist Ireland has made the following submission to the Public Consultation Process on the Establishment of a New Electoral Commission. Once it has been considered, the submission will be published on the website of the Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government. Recommendations The SIPO law needs to be strengthened ...

20/01/2019 Atheist Ireland

The Irish Times is correct to warn against weakening the laws that regulate political funding

The Irish Times (editorial, Jan 16th) is correct to warn that allowing foreign political donations could have negative consequences for our democracy. It is also correct to highlight the similarities between funding election campaigns and funding political lobbying between elections. Atheist Ireland is a small advocacy group promoting human rights. ...

11/11/2018 Atheist Ireland

Atheist Ireland launches ‘One Oath For All’ campaign

Atheist Ireland is today launching a ‘One Oath For All’ campaign, to enable conscientious atheists to hold the office of President, Judge, Taoiseach, or other members of the Council of State. Today Michael D Higgins will begin his second term as President, after fourteen elections or uncontested nominations since 1938, ...

19/10/2018 Atheist Ireland

Ronan Mullen voted against the blasphemy law in 2009, despite now denying that he did so

Senator Ronan Mullen voted against the Irish blasphemy law in 2009, despite denying that he did so on Prime Time yesterday. He opposed the blasphemy law because it did not explicitly allow religious people to blaspheme against matters held sacred by other religions. He added: ‘I say this as someone ...