EHF President on protests after George Floyd killing

On the occasion of the worldwide protest movement after the killing of the American citizen George Floyd by policemen, the President of the European Humanist Federation, Michael Bauer, states:

“These days we look with shock at the images of inhuman police violence in the USA, and with concern we register the political development there. Our sympathy goes to the victim and his relatives and friends. However, we Europeans do not need to look across the Atlantic to find right-wing populism and the contempt for human life. The standards of the rule of law are under threat even in some EU member states. Our dealing with refugees at the external borders of the EU is often not a positive example of the humanistic values of Europe that are otherwise so readily upheld. Europe’s George Floyd lies at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, together with thousands of refugees whose deaths we preferred to paying the costs of their rescue, or even take them in. There is certainly no cause for arrogance on this side of the Atlantic. It is to be hoped that the protests against racism, inhumanity and exclusion will lead to a sharper political awareness of human and civil rights in Europe and even worldwide. To assert humanistic values still remains the task of all of us”.