Our greeting to the Humanist African Forum

Dear friends,
First of all, I want to express my gratitude to the organizers of this Forum, in the first place to the Senegalese friends who made this important event possible.
In the last congress of the European Region of the Humanist International in Budapest, the delegations of 19 European countries received the greetings of the African pre-regional meeting that took place in Accra, together with a warm invitation to this meeting here in Dakar, for which I would like to thank you here.  
Regarding the social situation of Europe, we have to state that the gap between the humanist aspirations as expressed in this Manifesto and the daily life of the people is constantly widening. The shooting of 8 young Africans in Ceuta and Melilla, the burning of 11 Africans in Amsterdam and the recent racist killing of a young Cameroonian student in Russia are only the most spectacular and visible expressions of the racist and xenophobic tendencies within Europe. In front of those human tragedies and the ones that unfortunately will still occur, the European Humanist International expresses here it’s commitment to continue it’s fight for an open and diverse Europe, denouncing every violation of the most basic human right of any person that lives in or enters to our continent, and we refuse to use the same terms like the European Mass Media that were reporting on the death of “11 illegal immigrants” and not of  eleven particular human beings, each one searching a better future.
This reveals our fundamental difference with the actual system which is not only considering certain human beings as illegal, but the human being in general as a statistical factor, as a number or as a simple object to be used.
The realization of the first Humanist African Forum fills us now with great joy, and it is with equally great joy that I transmit you from the European Region our best greetings and wishes for this first Humanist African Forum.
We feel that the event of today and tomorrow are of highest importance in the direction of the Universal Human Nation.
Last but not least, we extend our warm invitation to you all in the next Humanist European Forum in Lisbon towards the end of the year.
Receive from the European Humanist Regional a lot of Peace, Force and Joy.