UAAR was founded in 1986 to promote the diffusion of atheist and agnostic ideas, campaign for a thoroughly secular state, and struggle against any privilege granted to the Roman Catholic religion and against any discrimination of nonbelievers.

[3] Besides seeking contacts with government representatives, UAAR is prepared to initiate legal actions to obtain the full acknowledgement for atheism and atheists' rights.

[2] The UAAR has pushed for the removal of crucifixes in the classrooms of state-run schools, a position which was upheld by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in November 2009.

[9][10][11] In 2019 the UAAR condemned a ruling which charged an Italian photographer with blasphemy for comparing the Catholic Church to a masochist club during a radio interview.

The campaign, due to start on 4 February 2009, was symbolically launched in Genoa, on the occasion of the nomination of the city's archbishop, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, as president of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI).

[19] As a reaction, the UAAR launched a new campaign in Genoa with a different slogan to comply with the advertising authority's rules: "The good news is that there are millions of atheists in Italy.