Today is Human Rights Day. Tomorrow we’ll be hosting a celebration at the university, with guests including the Mayor of Ipswich, focussing on Article 19 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Click here for more information. Today, the International Humanist and Ethical Union has issued a report on worldwide discrimination against the non-religious. It details those countries where freedom of speech is impossible because it is considered a crime to criticise religion, or even to be non-religious or to adopt the wrong religion.

Herewith the latest newsletter – [click here to download it](http://www.suffolkhands.org.uk/files/1/SH&S News Nov 2012.pdf “SH&S News Nov 2012”) (pdf). Please note the event on the front page, the Human Rights Celebration at University Campus Suffolk. We hope that as many as possible will come to hear speakers from a variety of local organisations (including ours) offer their thoughts on Article 19 of the UN Declaration of Humanist Rights, which is about free speech.

Image (c) M Nelson 2012  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

I think it’s fair to say that the British Humanist Association was a little slow to wake up to the threat of Steiner schools, while they concentrated their efforts on campaigning against more conventional faith schools. Since the Steiner philosophy is so woolly and many parents are fooled into thinking that it all sounds lovely, few others saw them as threat either. If parents want to send their kids to Steiner schools, where they’ll learn to be at one with Nature, why should we care?

The church’s rejection of women bishops makes its occupancy of 26 seats in the House of Lords untenable. Please sign this e-petition. No women Bishops, no automatic seats in the House of Lords Responsible department: Cabinet Office The Church of England on 20th Nov 2012 voted not to allow women to be Bishops. Though that is within its rights to do, this should worry the Government as Church of England Bishops are awarded legislative power through seats in the House of Lords.

Yesterday’s rejection of women bishops by the Church of England led to deep disappointment and embarrassment in the liberalising wing of the church. Those outside the church will be asking some important questions. How can the Church of England continue to claim its privileged position in British civil society and its exemption from equality law? How can anyone justify allowing 26 male bishops to sit in the House of Lords?

Imagine not having a loo. Imagine having to find somewhere safe to squat out of doors because you don’t have access to a clean toilet. Hardly bears thinking about, does it? Today is World Toilet Day, when Water Aid and other aid organisations focus attention on the fact that many people, including one in three women worldwide, do not have access to a toilet. Please watch this video and then sign the petition asking the UK Government to keep its promise to help those who need proper sanitation.

The Suffolk Humanist group was founded in December 1991 by a very small group that met in a member’s home near Hadleigh. We had a party in Ipswich to celebrate our 10th anniversary, attended by the Mayor and Mayoress. We missed our 20th anniversary as we were distracted by other matters, so we’re celebrating our 21st instead with a tea party in the seminar room on the first floor of Hadleigh Library, on Hadleigh High Street.

The local UN Association organises an annual Celebration of Human Rights, based on the UN Declaration of Human Rights, with a different local group acting as host and choosing a theme based on one of the articles. This year we are hosting the event and we chose Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

As Douglas Adams wrote, “Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.” Well now you can explore some of it through the wonders of internetery and the enthusiasm of some star-gazers at Google, who’ve created 100,000 Stars, a virtual tour through just a little bit of the universe, where there are far more than 100,000 stars; nobody knows how many, but it’s a mind-bogglingly huge number.