ePolitix.com speaks to Andrew Copson about the role of the British Humanist Association.

Question: Can you tell us about the work of the British Humanist Association?

Andrew Copson: The British Humanist Association is the national charity supporting and representing the non-religious; promoting humanism and working for an open and inclusive society with freedom of belief and speech; and for an end to the privileged position of religion in law, education, broadcasting and wherever else it occurs.

We are also engaged in the direct provision of community services, through our well-regarded non-religious funerals and other ceremonies.

Question: What are the key campaigns you have running at the moment?

Andrew Copson: Our most long-running campaign has been our promotion of inclusive an accommodating community schools in place of state-funded faith schools.

We increased our focus on this campaign in 2001 with the government’s unpopular policy to increase the number and variety of state-funded schools and have been arguing since that no state-funded school should be allowed to discriminate in their employment or admissions, in their ethos or in the curriculum they teach.

We also campaign for reform of the laws on religious worship in schools and on religious education.

Recently our focus has also been on campaigning to have bishops removed from the House of Lords as part of Lords reform, for the removal of the current exemptions in equality law which allow religious organisations and employers to discriminate, and we promote a humanist perspective on bioethical issues as they arise – as abortion and assisted dying for the terminally ill have in recent months.

Question: How do you lobby government? Do you have a good relationship with government?

Andrew Copson: We are lucky to have good relations with the All Party Parliamentary Humanist Groups, which has well over a hundred members who share our aims in relation to equality, human rights and secularism.

Our relationship with government varies across departments but is generally good. In relation to the equalities agenda, we have been happy to work with government to achieve our shared objectives and our chief executive served on the government's task force and steering group for the new Equality and Human Rights Commission.

We have a similarly good working relationship with the Department for Children, Schools and Families, to whom we represent the concerns of humanists in education.

Our most difficult task has been to help departments to see that, where they are including religious groups in their work, they should also be including the non-religious.

That seems difficult for many departments to take on board, and we have had particular problems with the Department for Communities and Local Government on that one.

Question: You have a number of events coming up. The first one is to launch a new pamphlet by the Humanist Philosophers' group, 'The case for secularism: A neutral state in an open society'. What is this pamphlet?

Andrew Copson: The pamphlet sets out the positive arguments in favour of secularism in a way that we hope will appeal to religious believers as well as humanists.

It argues that a secular state is the only one in which the human rights of everyone – no matter what their religious or non-religious beliefs – can be fully respected and it highlights areas where the UK is falling down in respecting the rights of its citizens, regardless of their beliefs.

Question: What do you hope to achieve form launching the pamphlet?

Andrew Copson: The pamphlet is intended as an intervention in a debate that seems to have become increasingly polarised and somewhat confused.

Often, we only see public debates about the nature of secularism tangentially, in relation to flashpoint issues such as abortion laws, state-funded faith schools, or debates about the place of Bishops in the House of Lords.

Often, also, the terms of these public debates are confused because we do not have a real understanding of what secularism is, why it is of value in our 21st century society and why it must be defended.

We must have a proper public debate around these questions and the rational approach taken by the Humanist Philosophers' Group should help to encourage that discussion.

It's an invitation to debate to anyone who is concerned with how we can live together as an increasingly diverse society.

Question: What other events do you have coming up in the near future?

Andrew Copson: We've been very concerned over the last few months about the contracting out of public services to religious groups, which can discriminate in their employment and other policies in ways that non-religious providers cannot.

We intend to produce a report on this in the near future, suggesting areas for reform, which will protect service users and mitigate the potential harm that an increase in religious providers of public services may represent.