Organization

Executive Director: Floris van den Berg
Floris van den Berg (1973): Executive Director of CFI-Low Countries. He studied Japanese Language and Culture in Leiden and Japan. He also graduated in Political Philosophy at Utrecht University. An unpleasant confrontation with group thinking and conformism in Japan made him decide to study the roots of liberalism, individualism. Therefore he studies the Enlightenment tradition. John Rawls, Bertrand Russell en foremost Peter Singer inspire him. He is working on a Ph.D. in contemporary political philosophy. As a moral philosopher he searches for blind spots in morality. His areas of interest are animal rights, environmental ethics and human rights. Irregularly he publishes essays, interviews and reviews in humanist journals and magazines. He is member of the board of Dutch Freethought Association De Vrije Gedachte (www.devrijegedachte.nl). He edited two books: Schepping, wereldbeeld en levensbeschouwing, 2003 [Creation, Worldview and Life Stance] and Het Raadsel van Utopia, 2006 [The Enigma of Utopia]. He lives with his love and two sons.
florisvandenberg@dds.nl.

 Board

Chairman: Rob Tielman
Rob Tielman (1946): Chairman CFI/LC. One of the most important humanist thinkers and activists since WWII. Tielman spent much of his career as professor of sociology at Utrecht University. He has written widely; his best known work is Homoseksualiteit in Nederland [Homosexuality in The Netherlands) (1982), and he co-edited Building a World Community: Humanism in the Twenty-First Century (1994) with Paul Kurtz. From 1987 through 1994 Tielman was active on the National Commission of the Fight against AIDS, a government agency. He is at present serving as president of the Netherlands Pluralist Public Schools Foundation. He has held a large number of important posts within the humanist movement. He has been president of the International Humanist and Ethical Union and of the Dutch Humanist League [Humanistisch Verbond] and vice-president of the European Humanist Federation. He is a laureate of the International Academy of Humanism. (text adapted for Bill Cooke, Dictionary of Atheism, Skepticism & Humanism, 2006).

About Rob Tielman in Wikipedia: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Tielman

Secretary: Bert Gasenbeek
Bert Gasenbeek (1953): Secretary CFI/LC). He studied Political and Social Sciences. He is Director of the Humanist Archives and the University Library of Humanist University in Utrecht. He has (co-)edited many books among which are: J.P. van Praag. Vader van het moderne Nederlandse humanisme (1997), Anton Constandse. Leven tegen de stroom in (1999) and God noch Authoriteit. 150 jaar georiganiseerd vrijdenken in Nederland (2006). In 2003 he was appointed Fellow of the Advisory Board of the Center for Inquiry (Buffalo,NY).

Pieter V. Admiraal
Pieter V. Admiraal (1929) is a pioneer in the field of voluntary euthanasia. Pieter Admiraal took his MD from the University of Utrecht in 1956 and Ph.D. from Erasmus University in 1972. Pieter Admiraal, courageously and out of deeply felt humane considerations advocated for the right of a self-determined 'good death.' The Lower Chamber of the Dutch Parliament in 2000 voted and approved a bill allowing doctors under strict conditions to help their patients to die. The Netherlands is the first country to legalize euthanasia. The unique climate of acceptance of euthanasia in the Netherlands is the result of the campaign by activists like Pieter Admiraal. He was the president of Dutch Society of Anaesthesiology; he is the founder and first president of Dutch Society for the Study of Pain; and member of the Committee Pain and Committee Euthanasia of the Dutch Health Council. In 1994 he received the Royal decoration: Officer Oranje Nassau and in 2000 he received the Janet Good Memorial Award from the Hemlock Society, USA. Pieter Admiraal has to his credit over 70 publications, over 300 lectures and many interviews all over the world.
(Adapted from www.rationalistinternational.net)

Some quotes by Admiraal (from http://en.thinkexist.com/quotation):
"I say to my patient, 'I wish you a very good journey to an unknown you've never seen.'"
"The very word euthanasia is never used because of the madman Hitler.
"We in Holland know the word means "a mild death, a dignified death." And therefore we use it."