International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organisation

Purpose

The International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organisation (IHEYO) is the international umbrella organisation for Humanist youth organisations. IHEYO's main identity is to bring into active association youth groups and young humanist individuals throughout the world interested in promoting humanism, as is described in the IHEU Amsterdam Declaration 2002. IHEYO brings together people who describe themselves as humanists, atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, skeptics and similar views.

The vision of IHEYO is to give a voice to young humanists within the mission of IHEU. The mission of IHEU is to build and represent the global humanist movement that defends human rights and promotes humanist values worldwide. IHEYO does this by organising international networking events, offering training, connecting youth through social media and by its work in regional working groups. These activities empower IHEYO’s members to achieve their individual, local and regional goals.

IHEYO members form the young humanist communities and campaign for political and cultural change in a diverse range of areas such as religious freedom, women's rights, education rights, abortion rights, LGBTIQ rights, equality, human rights, freedom of speech/thought/belief, public communication of science.

History

IHEYO was formally established in 2003, but it was not completely a 21st-century construct. The first version of IHEYO was launched in 1966, and lasted around ten years. In the ‘80s, it was again revived for a similar period of time. But it was not until 2001, when the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) started an internship programme, that the idea of re-establishing IHEYO as an international humanist youth network was revived in a lasting way.

Membership

Full members:

Structure

IHEYO's Working Groups are the forum through which Humanist organisations can get in touch and work together with others in the same region. There are four Working Groups: the Asian Humanist Alliance, African Working Group, European Working Group and Americans Working Group.

African Working Group

The African Working Group (in short: AfWG) of IHEYO was established around 2005. It organises regional meetings in East and West Africa. The African Working Group is mainly organised in East Africa (Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, etc.) and West Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Cameroon, etc.). The Fourth Annual IHEYO East African Regional Working Group Meeting was held in Kigali on 26–28 August 2015.

Americas Working Group

The American Working group is the newest and launched in Washington DC in May 2015 at the Future of Ethical Societies Annual conference. This working group covered Canada, the United States of America, Central America and South America.

Asian Humanist Alliance (Asian Working Group)

The Asian Working Group is a joint humanist effort in this continent to foster humanist values and ideas. Since its inception in 2007, it has published information −bulletins, has had regular meetings and organised events. The Working Group has members in Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines.

European Working Group

The European Working group (EWG) combines all IHEYO member organisations in Europe. The EWG has annual face-to-face meetings to coordinate the international exchanges taking place at events organised in Europe, including the European Humanist Youth Days (EHYD).

Events

Events

Better Tomorrow

Better Tomorrow is IHEYO's annual charity event. Its concept was based on the British student federation AHS's Non-Prophet Week.

Presidents