Atheist Ireland was at the United Nations in Geneva this week lobbying for the rights of children in Irish schools that discriminate on the ground of religion. We also represented the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Ireland, with whom we made a joint submission to the UN Children’s Rights Committee.
The UN Committee will be questioning the Irish State next January about how it respects the rights of children. At this week’s pre-session, the Committee was discussing possible questions with a range of Irish human rights and civil society groups. We attach below the written submission that we made to the Committee before the discussions.
We want every child to be able to access a local publicly funded school without religious discrimination or being threatened with refusal of access if they don’t uphold the schools ethos, and every school to comply with Section 62(7)(n) of the Education (Admissions to schools) Act.
We want the State to establish secular or non-denominational schools at primary and second level, and not merely multi-denominational schools. It should also legally and clearly define the terms denominational, multi-denominational, interdenominational, and non-denominational.
Every school should respect and vindicate the positive rights of minorities to freedom of conscience and belief; allow children to not attend religious instruction and provide them with supervision or an alternative curriculum subject; and provide a neutral studying environment outside the confines of religious instruction classes.
Submission to UN Committee on Children’s Rights from Atheist Ireland, the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland,
and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Ireland
Contents
Part 1 — Overview
1.1 Who we are
1.2 Our recommendations
Part 2 — C. Civil rights and freedoms (arts. 7, 8 and 13–17)
2.1 From the List of Issues
2.2 Response of the State party
2.3 Our comments on the State Response
2.4 The right to not attend religious instruction in schools
2.5 Types of Religion and ethical classes in schools
2.6 What happens to students who do manage to not participate in religion classes
2.7 Religious ethos and academic subjects
2.8 The Framework for the Primary School Curriculum
2.9 What does all of this mean?
2.10 UN Human Rights Committee
Part 3 — G. Basic health and welfare (arts. 6, 18 (3), 24, 26, 27 (1)–(3) and 33)
3.1 From the List of Issues
3.2 Response of State Party
3.3 Our comments on the State Response
Part 4 — H. Education, leisure and cultural activities (arts. 28–31)
4.1 From the List of Issues
4.2 Response of State Party
4.3 Our comments on the State Response to paragraph 27(b)
4.4 Our comments on the State Response to paragraph 27(c)
Part 1 — Overview
1.1 Who we are
Atheist Ireland, the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland, and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Ireland work together in a campaign for secularism and human rights. Despite our different world views, we agree that each person should be treated with respect, our right to hold our beliefs should be treated with respect, and States should treat us all equally before the law by remaining neutral between religious and nonreligious philosophical convictions.
As part of our work:
- We promote the fundamental human rights of freedom of conscience, religion and belief, equality before the law, and freedom from discrimination for all citizens.
- We promote these human rights within Irish society and political institutions, and at the United Nations and other international human rights regulatory bodies.
In support of these aims, we are making this Submission to outline the failure of Ireland to protect and respect the human rights of Atheists and secularists, Ahmadiyya Muslim and Evangelical Christians, and all minorities in the Irish education system. Our children are discriminated against on the grounds of religion and their rights under the Convention are not protected.
As you would expect, our groups can have different policies beyond the scope of this submission. For example, Atheist Ireland believes that state-funded schools with a religious ethos should provide arrangements for children whose parents do not want them to attend religious instruction, while the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland believes that religious schools should not have to make such arrangements if parents have the choice of an alternative school in their area that has a secular ethos.
However, this submission focuses on the areas on which our groups agree, regarding the rights of children, in accordance with the provisions of the Convention and the situation on the ground in Ireland. In practice, there are no secular schools in Ireland, so the question of alternatives to religious schools does not arise. What we are collectively trying to achieve in Ireland is that every child has the right to access a local publicly funded school without religious discrimination or being threatened with refusal of access if they don’t uphold the schools ethos.
1.2 Our Recommendations
The State should commit to ensuring that every child has the right to access a local publicly funded school without religious discrimination or being threatened with refusal of access if they don’t uphold the schools ethos.
The State should ensure that schools and patron bodies comply with Section 62(7)(n) of the Education (Admissions to schools) Act 2018 by actually writing the details of the arrangements into their admission policies, and not by saying parents have to meet with the school principal.
The State should commit to establishing secular or non-denominational schools at primary and second level, and not merely multi-denominational schools.
The State should legally and clearly define the terms denominational, multi-denominational, interdenominational, and non-denominational, as per the Irish Human Rights & Equality Commission Report ‘Religion & Education; A human Rights Perspective’.
The State should provide statutory guidelines to ensure that publicly funded schools:
- Respect and vindicate the positive rights of minorities to freedom of conscience and respect for their religious or nonreligious philosophical convictions.
- Respect and vindicate the right of children who exercise their constitutional right to not attend religious instruction, and provide such children with supervision or an alternative curriculum subject.
The State should provide a neutral studying environment, outside the confines of religious instruction classes that students can choose to not attend. Read more…
