Working  with Refugees, Asylum Seekers, Migrants & EU Nationals

Date & Time: 9.30 am – 4.30 pm, 23rd June 2010 :Venue: Glasgow

Course Outline:
This one day course examines the rights of migrants under UK and European Law.  You will be briefed on all the fundamental issues such as barriers faced by different groups and their respective entitlement to services. As a participant, you will be given up-to-date knowledge on the housing, employment and welfare entitlements of refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and EU nationals.

This course is highly participative and the course packs are comprehensive.

Who should attend?

Anyone who works with new migrants, refugees and asylum seekers; anyone who needs a thorough understanding of the barriers faced by these groups in accessing services such as housing, employment and welfare entitlements. It is particularly relevant to people working in social work, housing, welfare,
education, employment, health, community development or the justice system.

Course Outcomes:
By the end of the day you will:

· Understand the barriers faced by refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and EU nationals

· Have an awareness of the relevant legislation that impacts on individuals from these communities

· Have a knowledge of their housing, employment and welfare entitlements

· Be equipped to effectively review and update your organisation’s policy and practice.

Cost:

Non-members: £220

Community/voluntary organization’s: £150-(Dundee Humanist Group members can be funded contact Ron).

Members: £125

To book your place, please contact Ms Suki Sangha, Training Officer,
Positive Action in Housing Ltd, 98 West George Street, Glasgow, G2 1PJ,
Tel: 0141 353 2220, email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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LONDON (RNS) A top British judge has ruled that Christian beliefs have no standing under secular law because they lack evidence and cannot be proven. Lord Justice Laws made the declaration on Thursday (April 29) in throwing out a defamation suit by a Christian relationship counselor who refused to offer sex therapy to gay couples. 

Gary McFarlane had protested that he was fired because offering sex therapy to same-gender couples violated his Christian principles.  But Lord Justice Laws said "religious faith is necessarily subjective, being incommunicable by any kind of proof or evidence." He added that to use the law to protect "a position held purely on religious grounds cannot therefore be justified." No religious belief, said the judge, can be protected under the law "however long its tradition, however rich its culture.  We do not live in a society where all the people share uniform religious beliefs. The precepts of any one religion any belief system – cannot, by force of their religious origins, sound any louder in the general law than the precepts of any other. If they did, those out in the cold would be less than citizens and our constitution would be on the way to a theocracy, which is of necessity autocratic. 

The law of a theocracy is dictated without option to the people, not made by their judges and governments. The individual conscience is free to accept such dictated law, but the state, if its people are to be free, has the burdensome duty of thinking for itself.” He added: “In a free constitution such as ours there is an important distinction to be drawn between the law’s protection of the right to hold and express a belief and the law’s protection of that belief’s substance or content.” Laws also dismissed as "misplaced" and "mistaken", former archbishop of Canterbury George Carey's warning that a wave of discrimination against Christians threatens "civil war" in Britain.

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The Board of Trustees had approved the production of a poster to greet the Pope on his visit to Glasgow in September.  There was considerable discussion on the approach and the message chosen was subsequently advised as . . 

‘2 million Scots lead good lives without God’

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HSS – Strategy for the Future

Another good meeting was held with copies of the HSS consultation document, ‘A Strategy for the Future’, being discussed. Members looked at various sections of the document and there was considerable discussion about specific aims and objectives. Submissions from individuals’ were sought and comments were passed on to the Working Group.

We also looked at extending awareness of Humanism  via the the HSS website and Forum. It is available for anyone to look into and to post a comment if registered. There are various topics up for discussion and the greater use of this forum would encourage better management and development of relevant issues.

The next meeting will be held on Monday 17 May 2010, at 6.30 for 7.00 pm, all welcome

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Thanks to Joan Gibson of the Edinburgh Group, there is a new initiative of events for Humanists to enjoy.

Join them for Tea and chat in Dunfermline's Abbot's House cafe at 2pm on the first Sunday of the month, or on a visit to an art gallery – see below:

APRIL 20th
Dundee Mcmanus Gallery
Lunch at a venue, travel by train arriving about 11.30am

MAY *
3 North Fife Open Studios – 60 artists participating: www.openstudiosfife.co.uk
Travel by car and/or 8 West Fife Villages exhibiton of art, photography & crafts in Saline, travel by bus or car

JUNE *
Papua New Guinea art plus permanent exhibition at Kirkcaldy Museum & Art Gallery
Lunch at museum cafe, travel by bus

JULY *
Kinghorn – exhibition of sculture, painting & glass by local professionals
Lunch ?, Travel by bus or car

AUGUST *
Pittenweem art festival
Fish and chips in Anstruther, travel by car or bus

SEPTEMBER *
various minor galleries in the Edinburgh Festival
Lunch in Edinburgh, travel by bus

OCTOBER *
major Edinburgh Festival exhibition
Lunch at gallery, travel by bus

NOVEMBER *
Ferguson Gallery, Perth
Lunch in Perth, travel by bus, arriving 11.30am

*dates to be arranged

If your are interested in any of the events above and require more information then please contact
Joan direct on  [01383 720528 / This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ] or Elaine [01383 738335 / This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ]

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Education - a Humanist perspective

HSS Education Officer Clare Marsh was our speaker for the evening. Clare is working on improving the status of humanism in education.  This raised awareness was directed at helping and advising parents who had concerns as to the religiosity to which their children were subjected, and also through Society members being trained and available to go into schools, to give talks on humanism or to lead assemblies. 

Clare pointed out that children had no rights to withdraw from religious education or observance until the UN Convention (1990), which stated that parties should respect the right of the child to freedom of thought, conscience and religion: the child "should be educated but not indoctrinated". Clare described how, for its education initiative, HSS had compiled lesson plans for teachers and senior pupils, and had produced a booklet, “Education without religion – a Humanist perspective” for wide circulation, to raise awareness among education authorities and teachers, as well as parents. 

Sample letters for parents to use in approaching schools are now available on the HSS website.  Dundee Group volunteer activists are sought for parental support and schools engagement, as the essential local resource for further development of the initiative. 

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Well what a greet meeting we had on Monday speaker for the evening was Professor Callum G Brown, Professor of Religious and Cultural History at the University of Dundee. Some years previously Prof Brown gave a presentation to the Dundee Group on the mass conversions by evangelists which had since been followed by an increasing decline in religiosity, an area of continuing study by Prof Brown.

He became aware that his writing was focusing on negative aspects in this field, and in summer 2009 he started interviewing what he termed "people of no religion" to try to ascertain what had led to their changing their beliefs.  He found no single story in the diversity of interviewees, although he had been struck by the large number who had rejected religion when very young, around eight years of age.

Prof Brown demonstrated that there had been very few people claiming to have no religion until the mid-20th century, and pointed out that in many countries it had been technically illegal to affirm the non-existence of God.  From his interviews with people of no religion Prof Brown found that their many individual reasons for rejecting and he briefly illustrated the journeys to atheism of various individuals.

Prof Brown indicated that his work in this field was still at an early stage and, although he already had a large number of interviews recorded, he is keen to undertake further interviews, especially of HSS members, including celebrants, and he invited anyone interested taking part to contact him, at his work address http://www.dundee.ac.uk/history/humanism

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What have myths to do with Humanism and do we need more of them?  How can rationalist Humanists enjoy the obvious fiction of stories? These were some of the questions asked at this session: note that I have not said talk or meeting, as to describe the event in those terms does not indicate the theatricality and entertainment factor of the evening, and the great stories which were acted out while raising serious and truthful points.  Which, we learned, is what storytelling is all about!

In Act One, Andy described the route which had taken him from reluctant schoolboy to hero of schoolchildren as he performs with his company in schools and elsewhere the great myths of the world such as his performance of the Theseus and the minotaur in his award-winning Labyrinth.  The question what is the purpose of storytelling was one of an array of discussions which occupied the second part or Second Act of the evening, with a wide range of views being expressed: from the idea that all stories would interfere with children’s idea of truth, to the benefit of Santa Claus to Humanists as a first introduction for children to rationalising and logical thinking as well as helping them realise that all they are told by adults is not true.

It was good to have had a chance to think about the role of storytelling in culture generally and in particular in a Humanist context which does not have the well-known narratives of major religions.  This evening helped to raise a number of very interesting issues as well as being a highly entertaining night.

Cathy Crawford  

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