The Norwegian Humanist Association (Norwegian: Human-Etisk Forbund, HEF) is currently one of the largest Humanist associations in the world, with 82,890 members. In relation to the size of the national population (Norway has around 4.8 million inhabitants), it is by far the largest such association per capita (constituing 1.7% of Norwegian population).
Founded in 1956, the HEF is a member of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU). The Norwegian Humanist Association is an organization for people who base their ethics on human, not religious values. Most members are agnostics or atheists. HEF supports the following statement of the IHEU:
"Humanism is a democratic, non-theistic and ethical life stance which affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their lives and therefore reject supernatural views of reality."
Former HEF secretary general, Levi Fragell, was president of the IHEU (1988–2003) and is currently Chair of IHEU’s Committee for Growth and Development. In June, 2007 Åse Kleveland became chairman of the Board of the organization.
According to its bylaws, the organization works to ensure access to humanist ceremonies and spreading knowledge of humanism. The organization previously also worked for a separation of church and state (the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Norway was the state church of Norway until 2012). A civil confirmation organized by HEF has gained popularity among the Norwegian young during recent years. About 17 percent of Norwegian 15-year-olds are now taking part in HEF's civil confirmation.
On July 9, 2006 a prominent member of the Norwegian Humanist Association, Mr. Jens Brun-Pedersen, called for prime minister Jens Stoltenberg to advocate the separation of church and state. He argued that the second article of the constitution of Norway which defines the "Evangelical-Lutheran Religion" as "the official religion of the State" and the 12th article of the constitution which requires half of the ministers of the cabinet to be members of the state church is discriminatory, and that Norway can't criticise countries advocating sharia law when the constitution favours Lutheran members of society.
The Norwegian Humanist Association hosted the 18th World Humanist Congress of the IHEU. The Congress was held at the Oslo Congress Center in Oslo, Norway, on the 12th-14th August 2011.
A youth wing of the HEF, Norwegian Humanist Youth (Humanistisk Ungdom), was founded in August 2007. As of May 19, 2012 Helene Kleppestø is President of the Board.
Famous quotes containing the words humanist and/or association:
“Each of us, even the lowliest and most insignificant among us, was uprooted from his innermost existence by the almost constant volcanic upheavals visited upon our European soil and, as one of countless human beings, I can’t claim any special place for myself except that, as an Austrian, a Jew, writer, humanist and pacifist, I have always been precisely in those places where the effects of the thrusts were most violent.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
“The spiritual kinship between Lincoln and Whitman was founded upon their Americanism, their essential Westernism. Whitman had grown up without much formal education; Lincoln had scarcely any education. One had become the notable poet of the day; one the orator of the Gettsyburg Address. It was inevitable that Whitman as a poet should turn with a feeling of kinship to Lincoln, and even without any association or contact feel that Lincoln was his.”
—Edgar Lee Masters (1869–1950)