Humanism as Resistance: The Ottawa Declaration
On 9 August, the General Assembly of Humanists International, meeting in Ottawa, adopted The Ottawa Declaration on Humanism as Resistance. Drafted by a Resolution Committee chaired by Humanists UK Chief Executive Andrew Copson, the Declaration's central claim is bracing in its simplicity: humanism "is not just a set of values but an active approach to life". Its eight clauses commit humanists to resisting authoritarianism, nationalism and demagoguery; to refusing the dehumanisation that hate speech, science denial and disinformation make possible; to insisting that new technologies remain "accountable to human beings and aligned with human dignity"; and to defending democratic institutions and human rights frameworks rather than assuming they will hold on their own. It frames critical thinking and moral education as a form of "radical hope… against the despair upon which demagogues rely". The full text is worth ten minutes of your time: The Ottawa Declaration on Humanism as Resistance.
The Declaration's urgency is not abstract. Humanists International’s 2025 Freedom of Thought Report identifies 15 countries where state legislation is largely or entirely derived from religious law or religious authorities; 32 where religious or ideological instruction is mandatory in all or most state-funded schools without a secular or humanist alternative; 65 where blasphemy or criticism of religion can be punished by imprisonment; and 12 where apostasy or blasphemy can carry the death penalty. The 2025 edition's sharpest warning concerns method rather than geography: authoritarian and populist movements increasingly advance sectarian agendas in the borrowed language of human rights, invoking "traditional values" and "religious freedom" to justify restricting the rights of women, LGBTIQ+ people and the non-religious. As Copson put it, this is a misuse of the very vocabulary that was built to protect people. The threat is not confined to the states we habitually think of as theocratic — the report tracks the rise of Christian nationalism, an ultra-conservative movement explicitly opposed to church–state separation and religious pluralism, in nominally secular democracies.
Australia is not a bystander here. We remain without a national bill of rights; religious exemptions still carve holes in anti-discrimination protections; religious instruction continues to occupy class time in public schools across several states; and the question of how far religious institutions may go in overriding others' rights returns to the parliamentary agenda with some regularity. The Ottawa Declaration's argument is precisely that secular, democratic arrangements do not defend themselves. They are held in place by people who show up. As Humanists, we are the Resistance.
Further reading: Humanists International - Freedom of Thought Report
