Many humanists are persecuted because of their beliefs. Authorities often target them because of their rejection of religion, or their promotion of humanist values. We need your help to protect them.
Not all humanists across the world can live freely, in accordance with their values. Many humanists and atheists around the world are forced to live their lives “in the closet”; the alternative being the risk of ostracism, discrimination, persecution, prison terms – or even death (be it from state-sanctioned punishment or vigilante violence).
The global Covid-19 crisis has dramatically affected the lives of humanists at risk. Many are in prison with little or no access to medical assistance and exposed to the contagion; the poor conditions in many prisons, and disregard for their welfare, makes them all the more susceptible to contracting the virus. Still more find themselves stuck, unable to flee dangerous conditions at home or stranded in a foreign country, waiting for borders to open and struggling to sustain themselves financially.
We have big plans to ramp up the support we offer to humanists at risk in 2020, here are just some of these plans:
1) We will ensure a quick response to all enquiries we receive from humanists at risk, aiming for a 24-hour response
2) We will hire the world’s only full-time Humanists at Risk Coordinator, to effectively manage the response of our whole network in a coordinated way
3) We will launch a brand new Humanists at Risk Report, which will highlight the growing body of evidence of discrimination against humanists and atheists
But we cannot do this alone – and this is where you can help us to make the difference.
In order to #ProtectHumanistsAtRisk, we need a lot of resources to provide the professional, legal and humanitarian support requested.
We know that this is a difficult time for everyone, and we understand that you may not be in a position to support our work financially at this time, but if you can, humanists at risk are in need now, more than ever. No matter how small, your donation can help us to make this possible.
Your contribution will go towards our work on behalf of individuals at risk, be it:
Please support us in this endeavour by donating whatever you can to our #ProtectHumanistsAtRisk campaign: gofundme.com/protect-humanists-at-risk-2020