Humanists UK

Humanists UK is deeply saddened to learn of the death of distinguished actor, campaigner, and long-standing patron Sir Patrick Stewart OBE at the age of 86.

Three LGBT+ organisations gave evidence today to the Joint Committee scrutinising the Government’s draft Conversion Practices Bill during the committee’s first public oral evidence session.

The House of Commons chamber during the Budget, 28 October 2026.

Northern Ireland Humanists Coordinator Boyd Sleator has appeared on the Give My Head Podcast to talk about humanism and Northern Ireland Humanists’ campaign for inclusive education.

Nearly half of people in the UK, 48%, say they would be likely to choose a humanist funeral for themselves, according to the latest Savanta polling.

Every year on 27 October, Cats Protection marks National Black Cat Day, its celebration of black and black-and-white cats.

Eslanda Goode Robeson at the San Francisco Conference, 1945.

Today, 21 October, would have been the 93rd birthday of Maureen Duffy (1933–2026): novelist, poet, campaigner, and the first President of the Gay Humanist Group, now LGBT+ Humanists.

Humanist campaigning against so-called conversion therapy has gone on display, showing decades of political inaction on banning it.

The Isle of Man’s Assisted Dying Bill has been granted Royal Assent more than 18 months after Tynwald, the island’s parliament, passed it.

Pembrokeshire County Council has dropped its plan to remove the Church in Wales status from Ysgol Cilgerran after the Church threatened legal action over the school site.

Najmeh Amini, a 23-year-old accounting student, has been sentenced to death in Iran for ‘insulting the prophet’ over a post on social media.

Humanists UK sounded the alarm over the rising threat of Christian nationalism during this year’s party conference season.

Nigel Farage MP (Clacton, Reform UK) ©House of Commons Reform UK has pledged to suspend the UK’s asylum system for five years if it wins the next general election.

New research from the think tank Theos shows that the most religiously active group in the UK is also among the most supportive of Christian Nationalist ideas.

Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott ©House of Commons 2026 Humanists UK has expressed concerns about Conservative plans to reject statutory citizenship education in primary schools and wider proposals on ‘political impartiality’ that could create a chi…

The Conservative Party has pledged at its party conference to guarantee that children in state-funded schools, including faith schools, will no longer be made to comply with religious dress codes as part of school uniform policies.

As the spooky season gets under way, and ahead of our In Conversation With… Deborah Hyde event on 21 October, we’ve blown the cobwebs off the archive to tell the story of the supernatural – and how humanists have written about it and responded to it – acr…

Image from Anojan Sivarasa’s Facebook page Humanists UK has launched a petition calling on the UK Government to act urgently to help save the life of Anojan Sivarasa, a 24-year-old Sri Lankan migrant worker sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia over a comment

empty classroom Wales Humanists is calling on the Welsh Government to review faith-school provision as councils face difficult decisions about school closures because of falling pupil numbers and a changing religious landscape.

Only two of Northern Ireland’s approximately 1,000 schools currently meet the 40:40:20 pupil-mix aspiration promoted by the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education (NICIE) as the target for integrated schools, and cited by Education Minister Paul

Speaking at the 63rd session of the UN Human Rights Council, Humanists UK challenged misleading rhetoric about the extent to which the European Court of Human Rights prevents the deportation of foreign national offenders, highlighting evidence that succes…

Broadcaster, author, and Humanists UK President Janet Ellis MBE will be in the upcoming season of BBC Two’s Pilgrimage on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer from spring 2027.

A major new toolkit will provide practical guidance to Home Office decision-makers, lawyers, charities and refugee support organisations, as well as people who are themselves seeking asylum because they are facing persecution relating to their non-religio…

Dame Esther Rantzen at the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee 2022 – Picture by Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street Humanists UK is saddened to announce the death of Dame Esther Rantzen, the trailblazing broadcaster, founder of Childline, and stalwart…

Humanists UK announced today that world-renowned climate scientist Professor Corinne Le Quéré CBE will deliver the Rationalist Press Lecture 2026.

The Northern Ireland Assembly has voted to pass the Conversion Practices (Criminalisation) Bill at Second Stage.

Couple: Hester and Joe.

Humanists UK has announced the forthcoming publication of How to be a Happy Human: Seven Humanist Foundations for a Better Life, a new book on living well by Chief Executive Andrew Copson.

A groundbreaking radio documentary Faithless will air on BBC Radio 4 this Sunday at 19:15, following the story of four supporters of Faith to Faithless, Humanists UK’s award winning service supporting people who have left controlling religious environment…

Tim Whitmarsh, Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge, will join Humanists UK Chief Executive Andrew Copson to ask how a 3,000-year-old poem works out what a good life looks like in a world where the gods are no moral guide at all – and…

Teachers at two Catholic schools in Lancashire have taken strike action over plans to move their schools into Catholic multi-academy trusts, adding to growing opposition to the consolidation of state-funded Catholic schools under large church-controlled a…

Young adults cross The Peace Bridge in Derry, Northern Ireland More 16-year-olds in Northern Ireland say they have no religion than identify as either Catholic or Protestant, according to ARK’s 2026 Young Life and Times survey.

The Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses has announced a significant change to its long-standing position on the ban of blood transfusions.