In 2021, motivated by the growing human rights crisis in Afghanistan, American Atheists organized a series of fundraisers which successfully raised $4,000 to support Humanists International’s Protect Humanists at Risk campaign. The program is still active and remains in high demand, with the number of requests received each year consistently outstripping capacity to provide tailored support.
Working to ensure humanists, atheists, and the nonreligious are no longer at risk for their beliefs or identity is one of our key priorities at Humanists International. We believe everyone should have the right to practice and express their beliefs without fear of discrimination or persecution.
Sadly, our latest Freedom of Thought Report found that 70 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where the expression of humanist values is severely repressed and where the full realization of one’s right to freedom of religion or belief is impossible.
Our work on the End Blasphemy Laws campaign has found that outspoken humanists and atheists who criticize religion can be sentenced to death for “blasphemy” in seven countries worldwide. There are also currently 57 countries which may penalize blasphemy with a prison sentence and 25 which impose a fine.
Given this context, it’s unsurprising we routinely hear from nonreligious people forced to hide their beliefs entirely in order to avoid state-sanctioned punishment or vigilante violence. With limited resources available, we generally have to prioritize those at highest risk and whom we believe we are best positioned to help. For this reason, all applications for support are assessed against a set of standard criteria.
Since the program was officially launched in 2020, we have received at least 894 requests for assistance from 767 different people in at least 67 countries. This is a conservative estimate considering that when the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021, individuals would often apply on behalf of a group of atheists.
Prior to the Taliban’s takeover, we received the highest volume of requests from Pakistan—about 20 percent. Applications from Bangladesh, where freethinkers have faced violent reprisals since 2015, have also been consistently high. Applications from the Middle East/North Africa region accounted for around 50 percent of requests.
In August 2021, at the height of the crisis, applications from Afghanistan exceeded 80 per year. The number of Afghans reaching out for help has dropped slowly over the past few years, in part because those that remain find it harder to reach out or to flee. They may also have a lower level of English proficiency in order to access the necessary resources.
Although we are not able to provide tailored support to every applicant, everyone who reaches out to us is provided with an array of information to cover different needs. This includes information about security and wellbeing, relocation, asylum, grants, and various other organizations and networks who may be able to help.
The more in-depth support we provide requires additional evidence and verification to support someone’s case. The cases we take on for this kind of support tend to be the most complex, and we often expect they may need various forms of support over a longer period of time.
To date, we have helped 354 different people with tailored support, and many of them have received support over several years in multiple forms, including emergency grants, letters of support for asylum claims, campaigning initiatives, the identification of pro bono lawyers, advocacy with representatives of State governments or international institutions, such as UN Special Rapporteurs, and more.
We have also helped people access a total of approximately $120,000 to cover subsistence and/ or relocation costs, medical or legal expenses.
In 2020, Nigerian human rights activist and President of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, Mubarak Bala, was arrested from his home and held without charge for more than a year. He faced charges before the Kano State High Court in connection with a series of Facebook posts he was alleged to have made, which were deemed to have caused a public disturbance due to their “blasphemous” content.
Following intensive campaigning and a long legal battle, on April 5, 2022, Mubarak was convicted of 18 counts of causing a public disturbance under Sections 210 and 114 of the Kano State Penal Code, respectively. He was given a sentence of 24 years in prison, which shocked the global humanist community.
Since then, working closely with Mubarak and his legal team, Humanists International has been supporting his legal appeal. Although the process has been subject to some delays, in May we learned his sentence had been reduced from 24 to five years.
As a result of the appeal, Mubarak now has one year left of his sentence to serve; however, the state still has the opportunity to appeal. We will continue to monitor the situation closely and will work to support Mubarak until his safe release.