''La Ligue de l'enseignement'' was initially conceived and created by the journalist Jean Macé, on 15 November 1866. It was advocated for by liberal press, as public, free, compulsory and

secular education Secular education is a system of public education in countries with a secular government or separation of church and state, separation between religion and Sovereign state, state. History Secular educational systems were a modern development inte ...

. A congress convened in 1881, which gave La Ligue its federal form. In 1925, after

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, La Ligue decentralized in order to create even greater access for the public needs. Midway through

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, in 1942, the league dissolved. In a re-founding convening congress in 1945, La Ligue deepened its involvement in

secularism Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on naturalistic considerations, uninvolved with religion. It is most commonly thought of as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state and may be broadened ...

and the

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...

. To date it remains a member of the

European Humanist Federation The European Humanist Federation (EHF, ), officially abbreviated as EHF-FHE, was an umbrella of more than 60 humanist and secularist organisations from 25 European countries. Founded in Prague in July 1991, the EHF was based in Brussels, where ...

and the

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. Fou ...

References

Educational organizations based in France European Humanist Federation Humanist associations Freedom of expression organizations {{France-org-stub