Secular Sunday #514 – Rights of the Child and a Book Launch

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Editorial

Rights of the Child and a Book Launch

 

The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration, and Youth is preparing Ireland’s 5th/6th State Report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. Atheist Ireland has made a submission to the consultation on the draft State Report.

We have asked the State to correct parts of the Draft Report regarding the right to not attend religion classes, the right to age-appropriate education on sexual and reproductive health and rights, the impact of the 2018 Education (Admission to Schools) Act, and the availability of non-denominational and multi-denominational schools. You can read our full submission here.

Also this Thursday evening, 4 November, Michael Nugent will be speaking on a panel for the launch of the book Seeking Common Ground: A Theist/Atheist Dialogue by Peter Admirand and Andrew Fiala. It’s in DCU All Hallows Campus and you can attend live or by Zoom. You can read details here.
https://www.dcu.ie/cird/news/2021/oct/book-launch-seeking-common-ground-theistatheist-dialogue

Finally, we would like to highlight that last Tuesday was three years since the people of Ireland voted to remove the medieval crime of blasphemy from our constitution. That was Atheist Ireland’s longest and most successful campaign so far, and we would like to thank everybody who helped to make it happen.

As always, it would be great if you could please help Atheist Ireland to highlight issues like these, and support our ongoing work promoting secular education and secular laws in Ireland, by joining Atheist Ireland as a member. We are a voluntary body with no paid staff, and we depend on our members to continue our work. You can join here. You can join here

– Secular Sunday Editorial Team

Éire Aindiach

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

 

Atheist Ireland asks Department to protect rights of children from secular families in schools

 

The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration, and Youth is preparing Ireland’s 5th/6th State Report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. Atheist Ireland has made the following submission to the consultation on the draft State Report.
We are making this submission with regard to three aspects of the Draft State Report:
C. Civil Rights and Freedoms (Arts. 7, 8, 13–17), Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion:

“17. Please inform the Committee on the measures taken to ensure accessible options for
children to opt out of religious classes and access appropriate alternatives to such classes,
in accordance with the needs of children of minority faith or non-faith backgrounds.”

G. Basic health and welfare (Arts. 6, 18 (3), 24, 26, 27 (1)–(3) and 33):

“25(c) Ensure comprehensive, age-appropriate education on sexual and reproductive health and rights, including information on family planning, contraceptives and the risks related to early pregnancies, as well as the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections.”

H. Education, leisure and cultural activities (Arts. 28 – 31):

“28(b) Assess the impact of the 2018 Education (Admission to Schools) Act in ensuring children’s right to education without discrimination, including in cases where admission can be denied on religious grounds;
28(c) Increase the availability of non-denominational and multi-denominational schools.”

Contents

1. Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion
1.1 Primary Level
1.2 Post Primary Level
2. Basic Health and Welfare
2.1 Relationship and Sexuality Education
3. Education
3.1 Admission to Schools Act
3.2 Non-denominational Schools

1. Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion
The relevant section with regard to C. Civil rights and freedoms (arts. 7, 8 and 13–17), under Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion, appears on page 34 of the Department’s draft report as follows:

“Question 17
Please inform the Committee on the measures taken to ensure accessible options for
children to opt out of religious classes and access appropriate alternatives to such classes,
in accordance with the needs of children of minority faith or non-faith backgrounds.”

1.1 Primary level
The State response says:

“Responsibility for providing a programme of religious education rests with the patron bodies of individual schools and not the State. There are a diverse number of patrons’ programmes within the primary school system. Some are denominational or religious, emphasising the place of children’s faith, spiritual and moral development in their lives. Others foster understanding of ethics and values.”

At primary level there is no option to access another subject if students exercise their Constitutional right to ‘not attend’ religious instruction, or their right under the Constitution as reflected in the Education Act to ‘not attend’ any subject that is contrary to their or their parents’ conscience, which includes religious education classes however they are classified.
Their Constitutional right to ‘not attend’ is not protected and enforced by the State notwithstanding the fact that the funding of schools is conditional on this right. Schools provide no supervision outside the religious instruction class and never provide another subject. Students are left sitting in the class where religious instruction takes place.
The Constitution envisages students attending publicly funded schools while having a right to ‘not attend’ religious instruction. Every word in the Constitution has meaning and Article 44.2.4 does not state that students need ‘not participate’ in religious instruction. It clearly states ‘without attending religious instruction.’
In addition the Primary School Curriculum supports the integration of subjects. Religious instruction developed by various Patron bodies is integrated into all subjects under the curriculum and no opt out is possible from this teaching. Parents are never informed that this is happening and it is supported by State funding and State policy.
The 1999 Primary school curriculum framework has enabled Patron bodies, schools and teachers to promote the spiritual education of students by evangelising them into a religious way of life. It discriminates against non-religious minorities. It does not take on board the positive right of non-religious minorities under Article 42.1 in relation to the education of their children. This is also reflected in Section 15-2(b) of the Education Act 1998.
The 1999 Primary School Curriculum focuses on the ‘spiritual dimension’ of life in relation to the promotion of religion and religious values. It only recognises and caters for the right of individuals to choose the particular form of religious expression that reflects the spiritual aspirations that he or she seeks. It does not take into account the positive right of atheists, secularists, humanists and the non-religious to express their own aspirations through values that are not based on a religious understanding of the world. Read more…

Know your rights

Curriculum Religious Education teachers in catholic schools have responsibility for the faith formation of catholic students. This means that catholic faith formation takes place in a curriculum Religious Education class that is supposed to be for all religions and none. Schools just enrol students into the course without informing parents that catholic faith formation is taking place.This breaches the rights of parents under the constitution and breaches the right to freedom of conscience, religion and belief.

Junior cycle Religious Education is indoctrination. Schools just enrol all students into RE, even those with no religious belief.
Catholic schools then integrate catholic faith formation into curriculum religion. The course was designed to meet the faith formation requirements of the Catholic Church.
Parents are not informed that this is happening and schools tell them that RE is suitable for all religions and none.
The Catholic Church has Guidelines on how Religious Education teachers are to deliver curriculum Religious Education.
This breaches the rights of parents under the constitution and undermines freedom of religion and belief.

Article 44.2.4 of the Constitution is a sub section of the right to freedom of conscience and religion.
Article 44.2.4 is the right to not attend religious instruction. The Supreme court has said that the inalienable rights of parents in relation to the religious and moral education of their children must be looked at in the context of Article 44.2.4, the right to not attend religious instruction. The courts have already linked Article 42 with Article 41, the rights of the family. How can that possibly mean that Article 44.2.4 is confined to not attending religious instruction according to the rites of a particular religion as it simply would undermine the right to freedom of conscience and the rights of parents under the constitution.
The Dept of Education and schools claim that the right to not attend religious instruction is confined to not attention instruction in the rites of a particular religion. That is contrary to what the courts have said and is an attempt to force students into religious education against the wishes of their parents.
This is unconstitutional and breaches the rights of parents and the right to freedom of conscience.

From the Toledo Guiding Principles on teaching about religion and beliefs in schools. The Toledo Guiding Principles are human rights based principles.
In our Republic we hand over control of our education system to private patron bodies mainly religious. Patron bodies ignore human rights and evangelise minorities into a religious understanding of the world with state funding.


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 godsfree (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  $34,550 to 1197 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 1881 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 4,086 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

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Events

November

Book Launch –  Michael Nugent will be speaking on Thursday 4 November on a panel to launch the book Seeking Common Ground: A Theist/Atheist Dialogue by Peter Admirand and Andrew Fiala. It’s in DCU All Hallows Campus and you can attend live or by Zoom.

On this day

26th October 2018

Three years ago today, the people of Ireland voted to remove the medieval crime of blasphemy from our constitution. Thank you to everyone who helped make this happen.

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

 

The ‘take it or leave it’ primary curriculum is a violation of human rights

By Colm O’Connor

 

Over the past 25 years, Irish society has evolved faster than anyone would have predicted. We can be proud that despite the challenges that remain, we have become a more inclusive and pluralist society. Nevertheless, we have significant blind spots, one of which is the treatment of the growing number of non/minority religious families in the 95% of our primary schools that have a religious ethos.
We are one of those families
. Read more…

North’s politicians unite to keep abortion border in Irish Sea

By Susan McKay

 

It was quite the “manel” on display last week when the leaders of the North’s main Christian churches, and their Council of Churches, gathered in the Church of Ireland’s cathedral in Armagh to mark the centenary of partition. Most quoted in the extensive news coverage was the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Archbishop Eamon Martin, who said he had to “face the difficult truth that, perhaps, we in the churches could have done more . . . to bring healing and peace to our divided and wounded communities”. Read more…

Depends Who Is Asking

By John Hamill from the Freethought Prophet

 

During 2016, an Atheist Ireland campaign resulted in a new set of requirements being issued to all third level educational institutions in Ireland by the Higher Education Authority (HEA). The HEA is the public body that oversees all Irish universities and institutes of technology. Atheist Ireland had discovered that many of these bodies were awarding lucrative no-tender chaplaincy contracts to their local bishop in secret, and the new HEA requirements were aimed at regularising this unconstitutional spending. Read more…

International

 

Whatever happened to separation of church and state?

By Howard L. Simon

 

Whatever happened to our country’s oldest constitutional value: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”? Has the principle of government neutrality towards religion been locked away under glass, like a cherished but quaint cultural antique?. Read more…

Young People Say Disconnect Keeps Them From Church

By Clare Ansberry

 

Several religious denominations have seen memberships fall in recent years, including among young adults and teens. A new survey suggests that many young people perceive a disconnect between themselves and the houses of worship that need believers to sustain their congregations. Read more…

 

What If Religious Schools Replaced Public Education?

By Peter Greene

 

The idea is hinted at, danced around, and indirectly expressed by many folks on the religious right. Talking off the record, you’ll hear some people of faith say that the church should take back the schools and other societal programs, and that “take back the schools” refrain has become much more mainstream in the last few months as conservatives sense a winning issue.In the Wall Street Journal, Columbia law professor Philip Hamburger just claimed that public education is unconstitutional. Read more…

Discrimination by Neglect: The Chronic News and Opinion Media Bigotry Against Atheists

By Gregory S. Paul

 

Discrimination by Neglect: The Chronic News and Opinion Media Bigotry Against Atheists. There is currently, in these United States, a form of casual and pernicious bigotry that continues to be directed against the fastest growing portion of the population. It is the big bigotry that hardly any pay attention to, and to a great extent other minorities subject to their own levels of prejudice also ignore or even participate in. Read more…

Campaigners call for release of Iranian blogger who ‘insulted Islam’

By the National Secular Society

 

Over 200 organisations and individuals have called for the release of an Iranian blogger imprisoned for ‘blasphemy’. An initiative launched by Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB), Atheist Republic and Ex-Muslims of Scandinavia aims to free Soheil Arabi (pictured), who has been imprisoned in Iran since 2013. Read online…

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
 

Podcasts, Videos and Interviews

Ireland

Do you host an Irish-based podcast on atheism, secularism, science, skepticism, human rights etc.? Let us know and we will link to it here.

International

 

Freethought Radio – Justice On The Brink
National Secular Society Podcast – Beware the government’s “new normal” of faith-based public services
The Friendly Atheist Podcast – What It Means to Be an Evangelical Today

Media Watch

News and views from Ireland and around the world. Sharing is not an endorsement. 

Ireland

International

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