"My country is the world, and my religion is to do good," said Thomas Paine, leading pioneer of the idea for human rights. The press conference on the "Secular Week of Human Rights" on November 12, 2018, at the House of the Federal Press Conference explains the largely overlooked background of the UN Declaration of Human Rights as well as its current threats posed by Trump, Putin, Erdogan, & co. In addition, it examines the practical significance of human rights work by illuminating the fates of those who fled to Germany from political Islam.

Die universellen Menschenrechte sind durch den Vormarsch von Nationalisten und Fundamentalisten weltweit bedroht. Aus diesem Grund erinnert die "Säkulare Woche der Menschenrechte" (Berlin, 11.-18. November) an die weltbürgerliche Haltung, die der "Allgemeinen Erklärung der Menschenrechte" zugrunde liegt. Mit von der Partie sind u.a. Richard Dawkins, Hamed Abdel-Samad, Ingrid Matthäus-Maier, Michael Schmidt-Salomon, Mina Ahadi, Michael Shermer und Philipp Möller.

Usually defendants hope for acquittal - unlike physician Kristina Hänel. In order to legally overturn the controversial § 219a of the German Criminal Code (StGB), she could not be acquitted in today's court hearing at the Giessen regional court. After the "successful defeat" in Giessen, Kristina Hänel can now appeal against the decision and is thus one step further on the way to the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe.

The legal experts of the Institut für Weltanschauungsrecht welcome today's judgement of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which declared the dismissal of a chief physician for "lack of loyalty" to the Catholic Church to be prohibited discrimination according to Art. 21 of the Charter of the European Union. Ingrid Matthäus-Maier, former deputy chairwoman of the SPD parliamentary group, ifw advisory board member and spokeswoman for the "Campaign against Religious Discrimination in the Workplace", described the verdict as "the beginning of the end of church labour law in Germany".