Atheist Alliance International

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Atheist Alliance International

Abbreviation	AAI
Formation	1991; 31 years ago (1991)
Type	Non-profit
Purpose	Advocacy of atheism and secularism
Headquarters	Washington, D.C., United States
Region served	Worldwide
Official language	English, Spanish
President	Howard Burman
Affiliations	Special consultative status at United Nations Council of Europe Participatory Status Affiliated local organisations on all continents other than Antarctica.
Website	atheistalliance.org

Generic atheist symbol, the result of a 2007 AAI contest, created by Diane Reed.^[1][2]

Atheist Alliance International (AAI) is a non-profit advocacy organization committed to raising awareness and educating the public about atheism. It does this by supporting atheist and freethought organizations around the world through promoting local campaigns, raising awareness of related issues, sponsoring secular education projects and facilitating interaction among secular groups and individuals.

AAI's vision is a secular world where public policy, scientific inquiry and education are not influenced by religious beliefs, but based upon sound reasoning, rationality and evidence, and where individuals who lack religious beliefs enjoy free speech, freedom of association and freedom to participate in public life.

AAI's mission is to support atheist and freethought organizations around the world by assisting them with local campaigns, outreach, secular education projects, coaching and promoting interactions among these groups.

History

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AAI was founded in 1991 as Atheist Alliance, an alliance of four U.S.-based local atheist groups. Over time Atheist Alliance expanded, adding both local/regional U.S. groups and international groups as members. The organization changed its name to Atheist Alliance International in 2001. In 2010 and 2011 members approved the separation of the U.S. and international segments of AAI into separate organizations in order to accommodate the different strategic interests of each group. The U.S. group of AAI was renamed Atheist Alliance of America. The launch of the newly restructured AAI occurred at the World Atheist Convention in Dublin, Ireland on 3 June 2011.^[3] In 2016, AAoA achieved autonomy from the decision-making Affiliate Council^[4] while the international group retained the original AAI name but adopted new bylaws and a new organizational structure.

In 2013, the AAI was granted special consultative status by the United Nations.^[5] In this role, the AAI will be able to better serve atheists facing persecution from their governments.^[6][7][8] In February 2020, Michael Sherlock was hired as Executive Director of Atheist Alliance International.^[9]

Organization structure

In the spring 2017, the Board voted to re-organize AAI. The focus changed to a stronger emphasis on supporting atheist and freethought groups around the world in their efforts to normalize atheism. To be more responsive to groups and their campaigns, certain bylaws needed to be updated. At the Annual General Meeting held in May 2018, a new structure was voted in.

AAI's Board still consists of between 4 and 13 Directors elected for two-year staggered terms. Affiliates or individual members can propose candidates for the Board, and the annual general meeting votes on them and elects directors.

The current leadership includes Howard Burman, President & UN Representative (USA); Bill Flavell, Vice President (UK); Fotis Frangopoulos, Secretary & Treasurer (Greece); Tina Hamilton, Atheist Support Network Director (USA); Manoj John,^[10] Development Director (India); John Richards, Publications Director (United Kingdom); Rosi Guastella, Social Media Director (USA); Larry Tepa, Regional Director for Africa; Fauzia Ilyas, Regional Director for Asia; Brendan Liveris, Regional Director for Australasia; Andy Phillips, Regional Director for Europe; and Jason Frye-Kolarik, Regional Director for North America.^[11]

Projects

AAI has been involved with projects around the world. These range from billboard campaigns telling people it is all right if they do not believe in any gods, to confronting religious leaders, to taking legal action against government officials who use public funds for religious purposes.

AAI assists Kasese School in Western Uganda. This is a humanist school that provides secular education in a remote area of the country. AAI's education policy supports the right to secular education, and asserts the need for education in critical thinking and the distinction between faith and reason as a guide to knowledge beliefs along with the spirit of free inquiry and the teaching of science free from religious interference and the respect for evidence. AAI is opposed to indoctrination and dogma—religious or otherwise.

The organization has a flagship publication called Secular World which is published quarterly. Members also receive AAI Insider, a fortnightly newsletter.

Criticism

The Board of Atheist Alliance International have been accused by some secular commentators of behaving in an anti-democratic manner.^[12]

On 20 May 2018, AAI adopted a new set of Bylaws,^[13] which were then published on the AAI web site. These new Bylaws applied the following changes as compared to the previous AAI Bylaws,^[14] which had been in place since 2013:

• The then existing Bylaw 5 requiring a General Meeting of the Members to amend the Bylaws was removed, and replaced with a new Bylaw 5 giving the Directors the power to update the Bylaws without reference to the Members.
• The then existing Bylaw 56 requiring the election of Directors by the Members was removed, and replaced with a new Bylaw 31 that gave the Board the power to appoint new Directors without reference to the Members.
• The then existing Bylaw 77 requiring the Board to arrange an Annual General Meeting of the Members was removed entirely, such that the Bylaws no longer referred to any forum in which the Members could hold the Board accountable.
• The then existing Bylaw 78 requiring the Board to publish financial accounts to the Members was removed, such that the Members no longer had any visibility of how their subscription fees were being spent by the Board.

Several of the anti-democratic measures that were introduced by the AAI Board on 20 May 2018, still remain as part of the current AAI Bylaws.^[15] For example, the current Bylaw 57 published on the AAI web site states as follows with respect to motions passed by a majority of AAI Members: “The Board shall take motions so passed into consideration but may use its discretion as to whether and how to act upon them.”

Efforts initiated by some original founding Members of AAI to resolve these accountability issues, and instead implement a more democratic structure for AAI, continued into 2021. For example, on 6 June 2021 Atheist Ireland met with the AAI Board to discuss how democratic accountability towards all valid AAI Members could be restored. On 24 July 2021, Atheist Ireland circulated a letter to all Members of AAI,^[16] which described the outcome of these discussions. The letter reported that during their discussions, the AAI Board admitted to communicating a false story in relation to the controversial changes that had been made to the Bylaws on 20 May 2018. Specifically, on 5 May 2021 the AAI Board sent an email to all of the AAI Members involved^[17] about the controversial 2018 changes to the Bylaws. They wrote that, “The board concluded that changing the bylaws, at least temporarily, would be essential in order to turn the organisation around”. In the same email, the AAI Board then went on to write that they subsequently reversed some of their changes to the Bylaws, "Once we had made the necessary operational changes to guarantee AAI's future”.

However, during their meeting with Atheist Ireland on 6 June 2021, the AAI Board admitted that this was not true, and that they had concocted a false narrative in their email of 5 May 2021. Instead, the AAI Board accepted that they had always intended their controversial 2018 changes to the Bylaws to be permanent. In fact, their motivation for reversing some of the controversial 2018 changes to the Bylaws was to retain Consultative Status with the United Nations, which requires a democratic structure. That is, during their 6 June 2021 meeting with Atheist Ireland, the AAI Board admitted that their intent had always been to permanently remove democratic accountability from AAI when they changed the Bylaws in 2018. During the same meeting, the AAI Board also accepted that they subsequently manufactured a mendacious story in order to cover this up.

Atheist Alliance International has responded on their web site to some of this criticism,^[18] making particular reference to issues raised on podcast. Within their response, the AAI Board admitted that when arranging the meeting on 20 May 2018, they incorrectly excluded several Member organisations that should have been included as then valid members of AAI. The excluded AAI Members were thereby improperly prevented from voting on the controversial 2018 Bylaws.

After the AAI Board reinstated Annual General Meetings in order to retain their Consultative Status at the United Nations, such an AGM was held on 25 July 2021. At that AGM, there were again complaints about the AAI Board preventing legitimate Members from voting. For example, the Humanist Union of Greece complained^[19] that despite being a fully paid-up AAI Member, they were not permitted to vote during elections for Director roles, and they were not permitted to discuss their complaint during the AGM. Moreover, it was also observed that since the AAI Board had removed Bylaw 56 requiring an independent Returning Officer, the candidates had managed their own election process^[20] before the AGM began. A statement was also published by the Greek Helsinki Monitor^[21] describing a series of complaints about a lack of transparency during the 2021 AGM. For example, it was reported that while there were 53 Affiliate Member Organisations within AAI at the time, only 10 voted and some Directors were elected with only 1 vote. In addition to objecting to the lack of any details about which Affiliate Member Organisations were allowed to vote and why, the Greek Helsinki Monitor statement concludes that the current Bylaws were, "drafted by the Board so as to accommodate its hold on AAI".

See also

• Humanists International

References

External links

• Official website
• Atheist Alliance of America website
• European Atheists website
• Media related to Atheist Alliance International at Wikimedia Commons