Secular Sunday #501 – What will the UN Special Envoy do?

Author Secular Sunday Published 01/08/2021

This week’s Secular Sunday. To avoid missing out, sign up here to receive Secular Sunday by email

Editorial

What will the UN Special Envoy do?

This week the Government appointed Katherine Zappone as Special Envoy to the UN on Freedom of Expression. Many people have rightly highlighted the lack of transparency in the appointment process.

But a more important issue is what does the job consist of, and why was the position created? A Government spokesman said that the Envoy would focus “on a small number of established Irish human rights priorities.”

But what exactly are these unidentified “Irish priorities”? Are they aimed at strengthening or weakening freedom of expression? We need as much transparency about this as we do about the process of appointing the envoy.

Also this week, Atheist Ireland’s submission on the Electoral Reform Bill was published on the Oireachtas website. We are asking TDs to strengthen, not weaken, the SIPO laws to protect democracy from the undue influence of big money.

Please join Atheist Ireland and help us to campaign for an ethical secular State that promotes neither religion or atheism. We are a voluntary body with no paid staff, and we depend on opur members to continue our work. You can join Atheist Ireland here.

– Secular Sunday Editorial Team

Éire Aindiach

Chun ár gcuid feachtais a leathnú agus a neartú, tá sé beartaithe ag Éire Aindiach níos mó úsáid a bhaint as an Ghaeilge.
Ba mhaith linn meitheal a eagrú, chun cuidiú le:

Polasaithe agus feachtais Éire Aindiach a phlé ar an raidió nó ar an teilifís
Cuidiú le doiciméid ghaeilge a scríobh
Bualadh le polaiteoirí chun stocaireacht a dhéanamh

Táimid i mbun aistriúcháin a dhéanamh ar dhoiciméid polasaí faoi láthair, agus teastaíonn cabhair uainn le aistriúchán agus profáil. Más maith leat bheith páirteach san iarracht seo, cur ríomhphost chugainn ag gaeilge@atheist.ie.

English translation:

To broaden and strengthen our campaigns, Atheist Ireland have undertaken to make more use of the Irish language.
We are looking to assemble a group of volunteers, to help with:

Discussing our policies and campaigns on radio or tv
Helping to write documents in Irish
Meeting with politicians to lobby them

We are in the process of translating policy documents at the moment, and we need some help with translating and proofreading. If you would like to assist with this effort, please email us at gaeilge@atheist.ie.

Atheist Ireland News

The following article was aslo published in the Irish Times

What will Ireland’s Special Envoy to the UN on Freedom of Expression actually do?

Obviously there should have been a transparent procedure to select Ireland’s Special Envoy to the UN on Freedom of Expression. But a more important issue is what does the job consist of, and why was the position created?
A Government spokesman said that the Special Envoy would “focus on freedom of opinion and expression, to provide high-level engagement on a small number of established Irish human rights priorities.” But what exactly are these unidentified “Irish priorities”?
Are they Irish priorities that would strengthen freedom of expression, and we need a Special Envoy to ensure that the UN does not weaken it?
For example, are they related to helping the UN to put pressure on other countries to remove their blasphemy and apostasy laws following our recent example?
Or are they Irish priorities that would weaken freedom of expression, and we need a Special Envoy to ensure that the UN does not obstruct the State from doing that?
For example, are they related to supporting proposed new hate speech laws, which would weaken freedom of expression and could bring back blasphemy laws by another name?
Or are they related to supporting the Department of Education’s policy to teach children to respect the content of religious beliefs, which undermines freedom of conscience and expression?
Atheist Ireland has engaged with the UN for many years in relation to freedom of expression. We use UN recommendations and reports when we lobby to change the Irish Constitution, law, policy, and attitudes on freedom of expression.
We don’t believe that the UN needs help from Ireland in relation to freedom of expression. In our experience, the relationship is the other way around. We need transparency about exactly what unidentified “Irish priorities” the Special Envoy will be promoting. Read more…

Religious education, formation, and instruction in Irish schools

In the recent Burke case the Court of Appeal said that case law demonstrates that there are Constitutional rules around the education system in relation to parents, the state, and the child.
In this case the Minister for Education had argued that her only Constitutional duty was not to destroy these rights. The Court found against the Minister and said that there are rights, duties and powers under the Constitution, and it is only through understanding the interwoven nature of those relationships, that clarity could be brought to the complex constitutional provisions on education.
With this article we want to bring clarity to those rights, duties, and powers in relation to religious education, religious formation and religious instruction in our publicly funded education system. For example the Courts did not define Religious Formation (Article 42.4) as Religious Instruction (Article 44.2.4). The Constitution refers to religious education under Article 42.1, Religious formation under Article 42.4 and Religious instruction under Article 44.2.4.
It is Article 44.2.4 (Religious Instruction) where the right to ‘not attend’ applies. Therefore if Religious Formation is removed from publicly funded schools, then there is still the Constitutional right to ‘not attend’ Religious Instruction under Article 44.2.4. Some people are arguing that removing religious formation from schools will solve the problem but it won’t as religious instruction will still be available and the right to not attend it under Aticle 44.2.4.
Different bodies including the Department of Education have defined religious education, religious formation and religious instruction without considering the case law on the issue. It is time for the Department of Education to look at the case law and move to ensure that it is reflected in law and policy.
Constitution protects philosophical convictions
The courts have said that Article 42 and Article 44 recognises and protects parents and children with philosophical convictions. These Constitutional rights are not confined to religious convictions. Bear in mind the wording of Articles 42.1 and 42.4 refers to Religious and Moral Education, and Religious and Moral Formation.
It is not constitutionally permissible to teach children morals through religion, if that is against the conscience of their parents. It is also religious discrimination. The courts have been very careful about this distinction, as they underlined the word Religious as opposed to Moral in their judgements.
The recent Burke case at the Court of Appeal case has linked Article 42 with Article 40 (equality before the law), Article 41 (rights of the family). The Court of Appeal also state that the judgement in the Supreme Court case, Campaign to Separate Church and State in 1998 was binding authority.
The courts have said that Article 42 (Religious Education) must be read in conjunction with Article 44.2.4 (the right to not attend Religious Instruction). This means that claiming that the right to ‘not attend’ under Article 44.2.4 only applies to Instruction according to the rites of a particular religion is clearly ignoring the binding judgements of the courts. Article 44.2.4 simply cannot be read in isolation from other Constitutional rights in relation to the rights of parents and their children and the right to freedom of conscience.
Religious Education – Article 42.1 states that:

The State acknowledges that the primary and natural educator of the child is the Family and guarantees to respect the inalienable right and duty of parents to provide, according to their means, for the religious and moral, intellectual, physical and social education of their children.

Religious Formation – Article 42.4 states that:

The State shall provide for free primary education and shall endeavour to supplement and give reasonable aid to private and corporate educational initiative, and, when the public good requires it, provide other educational facilities or institutions with due regard, however, for the rights of parents, especially in the matter of religious and moral formation.

(Religious Education and Religious Formation are referred to within Article 42)
Religious Instruction – Article 44.2.4 – Is referred to under the right to freedom of conscience and religion. It states that:- Read more…

Know your rights

The courts have said that parents have more rights under the Constitution than under human rights law. They recognised that parents have a right to their philosophical convictions. Despite this the Irish state has no issue with indoctrinating children from atheist and secular families in publicly funded schools.

Chaplains in second level schools (as well as religion teachers) instruct students in religions other than their own all the time. They also instruct children from atheist families in religions because religion is mandatory in a lot of schools. The Supreme Court said this was constitutionally impermissible.

In the High Court in 2011 Justice Hogan said that parents had the constitutional right to raise their children by reference to their own philosophical views.

The main aim of the second level Religious Education course is to develop values to enable students to see the relevance of religion to their lives. The Dept of Education claims that this course is suitable for all. They obviously never heard that atheists and secularists have constitutional rights!

As parents have inalienable rights under Article 42.1 of the Constitution in relation to the education of their children they can withdraw their child from any subject that is against their conscience.

However, Article 44.2.4 gives children the Constitutional right to ‘not attend’ religious instruction. This is a specific right in relation to religious instruction in schools.

In the High Court in 2011 Justice Hogan said that parents had the constitutional right to raise their children by reference to their own philosophical views.

Calling concerned teachers

If you are a teacher and concerned about unwanted religious influence contact Chris at teachers@atheist.ie

List of Atheist Ireland Submissions

Buy this book “Is My Family Odd About Gods?”

**Schools Special Offer**
Atheist Ireland are offering the book ‘Is my family odd about gods‘ free (excluding postage and packaging). This means that you can get this book for the total price of 10 euro. This offer is aimed at families with school going children, who would like to read this book. This offer is limited to one book per family unit and for postage within Ireland only. Read more…

Have you noticed that your school and your teachers may tell you one thing about religion, while some of your friends and family may have different ideas about god?
If you think that this is a little odd, then this book is for you. Buy this book here.

Lessons about Atheism

Atheist Ireland has published a set of free lesson plans about atheism for children aged 8 and up. We welcome feedback, which we will use to develop the lessons. You can download the lesson plans here

Be Good without Gods

Atheist Ireland ‘Good Without Gods’ Kiva team members have made loans of $33,250 to 1155 entrepreneurs in the developing world. You can join the team here. Before you chose a loan, make sure you do not support religious groups. You can check the loan partner’s social and secular rating here.

Notme.ie

Atheist Ireland’s ‘notme.ie‘ is a place where people can publicly renounce the religion of their childhood. Currently there are 1865 symbolic defections. Many share their reasons for making a public symbolic defection which you can read here.

Petition on Schools Equality PACT

Atheist Ireland currently runs one petition – The Schools Equality PACT. This seeks to reform religious discrimination in state-funded schools. Currently this stands at 4,079 Help us reach it’s target of 5000. Please sign and share this petition if you haven’t already done so. Thank you.

Tell us what you think

Have you any feedback that you would like to give us on the Secular Sunday newsletter. What are we getting right? What could we improve on? Is there something you would like to see included? Drop us an email at secularsunday@atheist.ie.

Please consider joining or re-joining Atheist Ireland

Atheist Ireland is an entirely volunteer run organisation. We receive no grants or government funding to continue our campaign work. We rely entirely on membership fess and donations.

Annual membership is nominal; €25 waged, €10 unwaged/student and €40 for family membership. Please consider becoming a member. Membership means:

You can help to build an ethical and secular Ireland.
You have a say in determining policy and electing officers.
You can attend members meetings and our AGM.
You will have access to our members only Facebook group
Your membership fee will go towards supporting our many campaigns.

You can join Atheist Ireland here.

Thank you for your continued support

Atheist Ireland Committee

Join

Opinion and Media

Material on atheism, secularism, human rights,politics,science etc. collected from media and the blogosphere from Ireland and beyond; used without permission, compensation, liability, guarantee or implied endorsement. We aim to include a variety of diverse opinions and viewpoints.

Blogs & Opinions

National

Divorce applications rise by nearly a third in wake of new legislation

By Colm Keena, Colin Gleeson

The number of divorce applications in the State last year rose by nearly a third in the wake of legislation that cut in half the time required for a separation. The Court Service’s annual report shows that 5,266 court applications were made last year, compared with 4,073 in 2019 and 3,888 in 2018. Read more…

Philomena Lee case to be one of lead actions over Mother and Baby homes report

By Mary Carolan

An action by retired nurse Philomena Lee is one of two lead challenges to the final report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes fixed for hearing later this year. Read more…

Archbishop in no position to talk about groupthink

By Michael McDowell

It would be grossly unfair to dismiss out of hand the words of the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary, spoken by way of homily last Saturday in Westport ahead of Reek Sunday. He drew attention to what he views as media and political groupthink that tends to view and debate matters of religion primarily in through a political prism and in a political context. Read more…

Why Is St. Marys Home Beside Planned New National Maternity Hospital Being Closed By Sisters of Charity?

By Shamim Malekmian

The decision to close St. Mary’s Home, which is owned by the Sisters of Charity, is causing huge disquiet among residents and their families, as well as among staff. So what is really going on? And why are elderly people being evicted? Well, the land on which St. Mary’s stands is right beside where it is planned to build the new National Maternity Hospital. So is it just an example of opportunism on a grand scale?. Read more…

Cork activist to fight claims made by Holocaust denier group

By Liz Dunphy

A Cork activist has said that she will fight any incitement to hatred allegations made against her by a fundamentalist religious group founded by a Holocaust denier. Mother-of-five Fiona O’Leary said that she “felt like she was in a Monty Python movie” as she was driven to Clonakilty Garda Station last week to be arrested on charges of incitement to hatred, trespass and harassment. Read more…

Jesuits confirm sex abuse cover-up at Belvedere College.

By Patsy McGarry

Allegations that pupils were sexually abused by a Jesuit priest in Belvedere College in the 1970s were not properly investigated, or brought to the attention of the Garda Síochána, a former school headmaster has told a Jesuit-ordered inquiry.
Last night, the Jesuits said the sexual abuse of pupils at the Dublin school was a “shameful” chapter in the order’s history, following the disclosure of some of the draft contents of an inquiry into the affair. Read more…

The church, media and groupthink

By Anthony O’Leary

Sir, – Archbishop Michael Neary is quoted as saying, “It is not uncommon to find the coverage of religion per se and religious affairs generally viewed through a political prism and treated in political terms” (“Archbishop accuses media of distorted coverage of religion”, News, July 26th). Read more…

Sexual abuse victim calls new redress scheme ‘a sham’.

By Olivia Kelleher

A man who has made several attempts on his life after a harrowing childhood when he was raped by his teacher on a daily basis for a year, has said he is “livid” at the terms of the new redress scheme. Read more…

International

Georgia: European Court on Human Rights rules in favour of freedom of expression in blasphemy case

By End Blasphemy Laws Coalition

The End Blasphemy Laws Coalition welcomes the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in favour of condom manufacturer Aiisa and freedom of expression. Aiisa’s owner faced administrative sanctions under Section 3 of the Advertising Act and Article 159 of the Code of Administrative Offences in 2018, in connection with four images posted on the brand’s Facebook page that depicted images deemed to be offensive to members of the Georgian Orthodox Church, the State’s predominant religious group. Read more…

Humanists International joins call for enhanced civil society participation at UN

By Humanists International

Humanists International has joined several NGOs in calling for the strengthening of civil society participation at the UN, post-pandemic. In a written submission made to the UN, Humanists International joined the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), Amnesty International, and Civicus, in outlining some of the key barriers to multilateralism and civil society’s ongoing participation in UN processes, many of which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, before proposing solutions to overcoming these obstacles. Read online…

Poland’s state commission against paedophilia issues first report with 22 recommendations

By Agnieszka Wądołowska

The state commission investigating paedophilia has issued its first report, along with a raft of recommendations including amending the Polish criminal code to crack down on sexual abuse. The commission was created by the government following the release of a documentary in 2020 revealing cases of abuse and alleged cover-ups in the Catholic church in Poland. Read more…

Parliament’s paradox: Does your work day begin by reciting the Lord’s Prayer?

By Duncan Fine

How does your work day start? In the Victorian Parliament nothing gets done until the reading of the Lord’s Prayer. As many cultural conservatives tell us, we are a country founded on Judeo-Christian values. But calls have been getting louder to ditch the daily prayer, led, not for the first time, by the Reason Party’s Fiona Patten who argues that as parliament represents a modern, multi-faith society it should not be so powerfully and symbolically tied to one small group. Read more…

These Australians were cast out by their religions. But they have no regrets

By Nick Baker

After taking on one the world’s most powerful institutions, Peter Kennedy has spent more than a decade living “in exile”. But that’s exactly where the 83-year-old wants to be. Mr Kennedy was a well-known Brisbane Catholic priest, but after challenging church orthodoxy and practising his own controversial brand of Catholicism, was dismissed in 2009. Read more…

Government doesn’t know how many children are forced into faith schools

By National Secular Society

The government has said it has no estimate of how many children are effectively forced into faith schools, or left unable to attend their local school because of religious discrimination, in England. Schools minister Nick Gibb made the admission in response to questions from Conservative MP and National Secular Society supporter Crispin Blunt in parliament last week. Read more…

If you are a blogger or vlogger writing or talking about atheism, secularism, ethics, skepticism, human rights etc. and would like us to include your work here please email the link to secularsunday@atheist.ie