The Freedom of Thought Report is an annual report produced by Humanists International that surveys discrimination against non-religious peopleâÂÂincluding humanists and atheistsâÂÂworldwide. First published in 2012, the report is published online with a country chapter for each country in a âÂÂCountry IndexâÂÂ, and Humanists International also releases a downloadable PDF âÂÂKey Countries EditionâÂÂ.
Each country is assessed against a set of âÂÂboundary conditionsâÂÂ. Each condition is associated with one of four thematic strands (âÂÂConstitution and governmentâÂÂ, âÂÂEducation and children's rightsâÂÂ, âÂÂSociety and communityâÂÂ, and âÂÂFreedom of expression, humanist valuesâÂÂ) and contributes to one of five severity levels (âÂÂFree and equalâÂÂ, âÂÂMostly satisfactoryâÂÂ, âÂÂSystemic discriminationâÂÂ, âÂÂSevere discriminationâ and âÂÂGrave violationsâÂÂ).
Humanists International publishes the assessment data as open data under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.
The report includes maps that colour countries by the most severe boundary condition applied in each category, as well as a âÂÂsummary scoreâ based on average severity across all four categories.
The various annual editions of the Freedom of Thought Report have been covered in the media, including The Independent, Christian Today, and The Washington Post. The report has also received coverage in national media in countries discussed in the report, including the Malay Mail in Malaysia.
Forewords and prefaces to the report have been written by a range of public figures, including United Nations Special Rapporteurs on Freedom of Religion or Belief; the reportâÂÂs foreword page includes excerpts from multiple annual editions. In his foreword to the first edition, Heiner Bielefeldt emphasised that international protections for freedom of religion or belief also apply to non-religious people and their convictions.
In the UK Parliament in October 2013, David Lidington responded to a question on the report by stating that UK policy on freedom of religion or belief is consistent with protecting the rights of individuals (rather than protecting beliefs themselves), and highlighted protecting freedom of expression online as a priority.