Atheist Ireland has made the following submission to the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights who is preparing  report on combating intolerance against persons based on religion or belief.
Contents
1. Background to Atheist Ireland
2. Our recommendations
3. The UN and States should use the phrase ‘religion or belief’ consistently
4. The right to freedom of religion or belief in schools
5. The right to freedom of religion or belief in the workplace
6. The balance between freedom of expression and of religion or belief
1. Background to Atheist Ireland
Atheist Ireland is a voluntary advocacy group based in Ireland. We promote atheism, reason, and ethical secularism by political lobbying and human rights interventions including at the United Nations. We also work with atheist and secular advocacy groups in other countries.
When promoting secularism, we explicitly say that we would be as opposed to the state promoting atheism as we are to the state promoting religion. We campaign on secular issues in alliance with the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Ireland.
We have previously made submissions to, and have participated in, UN Human Rights sessions about Ireland under the UPR, ICCPR, ICESCR, CERD, CEDAW, and Rights of the Child, as well as to the Council of Europe and the OSCE.
When the UN was questioning Pakistan under the ICCPR in 2017, we made a joint submission and sent a joint delegation to Geneva, from Atheist Ireland, the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland, and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Ireland.
2. Our recommendations
(a) In order to remove discrimination based on ‘religion or belief’ from within the resolution itself, the Report should recommend that the the resolution be amended to always use the full phrase ‘religion or belief’ and not to simply use the words ‘religion’ or ‘religious’. The same should apply to all UN documents addressing freedom of religion or belief, including the Report that this submission forms an input to.
(b) With regard to the right to freedom of religion or belief in schools, the Report should recommend that the Irish State in particular, as well as other States, 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.
• Establish secular or non-denominational schools at primary and second level, and not merely denominational or multi-denominational schools.
• Provide statutory guidelines to ensure that publicly funded schools respect and vindicate (a) the positive rights of minorities to freedom of conscience and respect for their religious or nonreligious philosophical convictions; and (b) the rights of children who exercise their constitutional right to not attend religious instruction to physically leave the classroom and get supervision or an alternative curriculum subject.
• Provide a neutral studying environment, outside the confines of religious instruction classes that students can choose to not attend.

(c) With regard to the right to freedom of religion or belief in the workplace, the Report should recommend that the Irish State in particular, as well as other States, should:

• Amend the category of ‘religion’ under employment equality laws (and any other relevant Acts) to ‘religion or belief’, and clarify that beliefs include positive philosophical convictions that are not based on religion.
• Amend any laws that prevent conscientious atheists, secularists and religious minorities being employed in the teaching and healthcare professions. In Ireland, such minorities are effectively barred from accessing the teaching profession, because they cannot get a job teaching consistently with their religious or philosophical convictions.
• Remove religious oaths for people taking up high public office (which in Ireland includes Judges, the President, and members of the Council of State (which includes the Taoiseach, and Tanaiste). These public office-holders should make a single declaration of loyalty to the Irish Constitution, State, and people, that does not reveal anything about the person’s religious or nonreligious beliefs.

(d) With regard to the balance between freedom of expression and of religion or belief, laws should be accurate, understandable, and enforceable. Laws based on ambiguous or emotive words such as ‘hate’ cannot do this. The Report should recommend that the Irish State in particular, as well as other States, should:

• Use the phrase ‘prejudice-motivated crime’ not ‘hate crime’,
• tackle prejudice against groups through education,
• and tackle prejudice-motivated crime through the law,
• while protecting the right to freedom of expression,
• based on human rights principles and standards.

3. The UN and States should use the phrase ‘religion or belief’ consistently
The title of resolution 76/157 of 16 December 2021 acknowledges that the characteristic to be protected is unjust behaviour against persons based on ‘religion or belief’.
The ‘belief’ aspect of that phrase refers to nonreligious philosophical convictions worthy of respect in a democratic society, which includes atheism as a positive belief and not merely the absence of a religious belief.
Atheist Ireland published an an article last year outlining where this positive right is articulated in international human rights law.
CCPR General Comment No. 22 on Article 18 states:

“2. Article 18 protects theistic, non-theistic and atheistic beliefs, as well as the right not to profess any religion or belief. The terms “belief” and “religion” are to be broadly construed…”

In the Venice Commission Guidelines for Legislative Reviews of Laws Affecting Religion or Belief, it states that:

“3. International standards do not speak of religion in an isolated sense, but of “religion or belief.” The “belief” aspect typically pertains to deeply held conscientious beliefs that are fundamental about the human condition and the world. Thus atheism and agnosticism, for example, are generally held to be equally entitled to protection to religious beliefs. It is very common for legislation not to protect adequately (or to not refer at all) to rights of non-believers. Although not all beliefs are entitled to equal protection, legislation should be reviewed for discrimination against non-believers.”

The title of resolution 76/157 acknowledges this. However, the paragraphs within the resolution do not follow through consistently on the purpose described in the title. Read more…

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Atheist Ireland, Evangelical Alliance, and Ahmadi Muslims update the UN on rights of children

Atheist Ireland, the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland, and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Ireland, made a joint submission to the UN Children’s Rights Committee as it prepares to question Ireland next January. You can read that submission here.
We also met with the UN Committee last week in Geneva, along with other Irish human rights and civil society groups. Before that meeting we sent the Committee this update on recent developments.
Written Statement to UN Committee on Children’s Rights from Atheist Ireland, the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland, and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Ireland
1. Our Recommendations
The State has not initiated any new developments regarding the recommendations in our submission of August 2022. These recommendations remain:

• 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.

2. Update on schools by patron type
This is the most up-to-date data on Irish schools by patron type that is listed on the Department of Education website for school year 2020/2021
Primary Schools Mainstream
2756 Catholic
171 Church of Ireland
142 MultiDenominational (96 Educate Together / 46 ETB)
17 InterDenominational
16 Presbyterian
2 Muslim
1 each Jewish, Methodist, Quaker
0 NonDenominational/Secular
Primary Schools Special
103 Catholic
21 MultiDenominational
1 InterDenominational
9 Other/Unknown
0 NonDenominational/Secular
Second Level Schools
344 Catholic
210 MultiDenominational (189 ETB / 21 Educate Together)
149 InterDenominational
22 Church of Ireland
2 Quaker
1 each Jewish, Methodist, Presbyterian
0 NonDenominational/Secular
3. Update regarding Divestment of Schools
In March 2022 the Government announced plans to discuss divesting more schools from Catholic to multi-denominational patrons in eight pilot areas. As outlined in our submission, even the maximum proposed divestments would not provide alternatives for secular and minority faith parents in the many areas where there is only one school which would remain Catholic.
The government plans only to divest to multi-denominational patrons, and not to secular or non-denominational patrons. The Department has published the following meanings, which they describe as for information purposes and not as legal definitions.

• Denominational patronage – under the patronage of a single religious community.
• Inter-denominational patronage – under the patronage or trusteeship of more than one religious faith community.
• Multi-denominational patronage – under the patronage of a multi-denominational patron.

This definition of ‘multi-denominational’ is circular and adds no information. However, if a ‘denomination’ refers to a religious faith community, then it follows that ‘multi-denominational’ also has religious connotations, and is not the same as secular or non-denominational. Read more…

Burke v Minister for Education

Here are the judgements at the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court in relation to the Burke v Minister for Education which deals with Constitutional rights in relation to education. Read online or Download the judgements

The Irish language version of Constitution

The Irish language version of Constitution takes legal precedence over the English version. This is relevant as Dept of Education claims that NCCA Religious Education course does not come under Art 44.2.4 – the right to not attend religious instruction. This is simply made up nonsense and it’s purpose is to stem the flow of students that seek to exercise their right to not attend religious instruction. You will find this nonsense written into most second level Admission policies.
The Supreme Court has said that the rights of parents under Art 42.1 of the Constitution must be read in the context of Art 44.2.4 – the right to not attend religious teaching. This means the parents have a constitution right to remove their children from any type of religious teaching. It is not up to the Dept of Education, the NCCA, Patron bodies, schools or teachers to decide for parents what is, or is not, suitable religious instruction for their children.

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