The Humanistisch Verbond (HV, sometimes translated as ''Humanistic Association Netherlands'', ''Dutch Humanist Association'' or ''Dutch Humanist League'') is a Dutch association based on

secular humanist Secular humanism is a philosophy, belief system or life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality an ...

principles.

Basics

The foundation of the HV is that everyone is responsible for their own actions, but also has co-responsibility for the environment and others. The HV strives to spread and protect values such as self-determination, equal treatment and

toleration Toleration is the allowing, permitting, or acceptance of an action, idea, object, or person which one dislikes or disagrees with. Political scientist Andrew R. Murphy explains that "We can improve our understanding by defining "toleration" as a ...

. These have freedom of choice and personal responsibility at their core. The HV uses slogans such as: *''Zelf denken, samen leven'' ("Thinking for yourself, living together") *''Het Humanistisch Verbond wil een inspiratiebron en ontmoetingsplaats zijn. Het behartigt tevens de belangen van mensen die zich in het humanisme herkennen'' ("The Humanistisch Verbond wants to be a source of inspiration and place to meet up. It also looks after the interests of people who identify with humanism") In 2022, the organisation stated that it had about 17,000 paying members, up from 13,000 in 2016 The services offered by the HV include speeches at funerals, humanist mental care and celebrating relationships.

Netherlands

Ruard Ganzevoort bij Humanistisch Verbond 01

The Humanistisch Verbond (HV) was founded on 17 February 1946 as a response to 'spiritual nihilism' - that was held partially responsible for the atrocities of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

- and the slighting of the non-religious in the Netherlands. The initiators were, amongst others,

Jaap van Praag Jacob Philip (Jaap) van Praag (born 11 May 1911 in Amsterdam – died 12 April 1981 in Utrecht) was a Dutch humanist who played a prominent role in establishing the Dutch Humanist League. He was its chairman from 1946 to 1969. And, from 1954 to ...

, Garmt Stuiveling and Jan Brandt Corstius. The widow of the prominent

freethinker Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and that beliefs should instead be reached by other methods ...

and humanist Leo Polak, Henriette Polak, was also closely involved in the foundation. The goal of the HV was uniting all humanists and deepening, spreading and defending the humanist worldview. Nowadays the HV focuses on the motto ''Zelf denken, samen leven'' ("Thinking for yourself, living together") to fulfilling two core tasks: #Formulating humanist perspectives to current worldview and personal questions; #Reinforcing and establishing humanist services, including humanist mental care, humanist funeral guidance and humanist formative education. The Humanistisch Verbond is one of the founders of the Dutch humanist umbrella, the Humanistische Alliantie, and is member of the

European Humanist Federation The European Humanist Federation (EHF, french: Fédération Humaniste Européenne, FHE), officially abbreviated as EHF-FHE, is an umbrella of more than 60 humanist and secularist organisations from 25 European countries. Founded in Prague in July ...

and

International Humanist and Ethical Union Humanists International (known as the International Humanist and Ethical Union, or IHEU, from 1952–2019) is an international non-governmental organisation championing secularism and human rights, motivated by secular humanist values. Found ...

Chairs

Chair of the Humanistisch Verbond were: *1946: J. Hoetink *1946–1969

*1969–1977

Max Rood Max Gustaaf Rood (21 August 1927 in Enschede – 2 December 2001 in Amsterdam) was a Dutch jurist and politician of Democrats 66 (D66). Rood was a legal scholar on the subject of labour law at Leiden University. He was Minister of the Interio ...

*1977–1987 Rob Tielman *1987–1993 Jan Glastra van Loon *1993–1995

Paul Cliteur Paul Bernard Cliteur (born 6 September 1955) is a Dutch professor of jurisprudence at Leiden University, as well as a politician, philosopher, writer, publicist and columnist. He is known for his conservative perspective, his atheism, his repu ...

*1996–1998) Marjan Verkerk *1998–2001 Liesbeth Mulder *2001–2003 Frits van Vugt *2003–2005

Roger van Boxtel Roger Henri Ludovic Maria van Boxtel (born 8 February 1954) is a retired Dutch politician of the Democrats 66 (D66) party and businessman. Van Boxtel attended a Keizer Karel Gymnasium in Amstelveen from April 1966 until May 1973 and applied at ...

*2005–2012 Rein Zunderdorp *2012–2020:

Boris van der Ham Boris van der Ham (born 29 August 1973) is a Dutch writer, humanist, former politician, and actor. On 23 May 2002, he became a member of the House of Representatives for the Democrats 66, a social liberal party. From 24 November 2012 to 21 Nove ...

*2020–present:

Mardjan Seighali Mardjan Seighali (born 1964) is an Iranian-born Dutch human rights activist, refugee worker and non-profit director. In 2013 Seighali became director of the Stichting voor Vluchteling Studenten UAF (Refugee Students Foundation). She serves on the ...

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Organizations established in 1947 Humanist associations Organisations based in Amsterdam

Basics

Netherlands

Chairs

See also

References

External links