European Convention and the exemption procedure from religion in Irish schools

In Ireland there is no effective and accessible means of protecting the right of parents to ensure that the teaching of their children is in conformity with their convictions. There is no regulatory framework of adjudicatory and enforcement machinery protecting individuals’ rights and the implementation, where appropriate, of specific measures to protect their rights under the European Convention and UN Conventions that Ireland has ratified.

In 2019 the European court found that the exemption procedure from a religion class in Greek schools placed an undue burden on parents with a risk of exposure of sensitive aspects of their private life ( Papageorgiou and others v. Greece). That case like all other cases in relation to religion in schools had no impact on the plight of minorities in publicly funded schools in Ireland. Even the Louise O’Keeffe case at the European court did not help give practical application to our rights under the European Convention. The state still delegates their Constitutional and human rights obligations to schools to implement according to their ethos.

The European Court went on to say in the Greek case that the potential for conflict was likely to deter parents from making a request to exempt their child from religion class, especially as they live in a small and religiously compact society. The Greek parents were also deterred from seeking an exemption from the Religion class because, as they pointed out, there was no other courses offered to exempted students and they were made to lose school hours just for their declared beliefs.

In a recent response to the Oireachtas Petitions Committee the Department of Education told the Committee that the manner in which any school ensures that the right to not attend religious instruction is a matter of the school concerned.

“The manner in which any school ensures that the right to not attend any class, including a religious instruction class, is a matter for the school concerned. Each individual school must determine the arrangements which are most appropriate to its individual circumstances. On occasion, there can be practical issues around supervision and arranging class times, and these must be considered by schools at local level and worked through in a pragmatic way.”

Under the European Convention, the State has a positive obligation to ensure the provision of an effective and accessible means of protecting the rights,  including both the provision of a regulatory framework of adjudicatory and enforcement machinery protecting individuals’ rights and the implementation, where appropriate, of specific steps (Osmanoglu and Kocabas v Switzerland 2017). The state recognises that schools must uphold human rights but has failed to give this any practical application on the ground.

The European Court found in the Greek case that State authorities did not have the right to intervene in the sphere of individual conscience and to ascertain individuals’ religious beliefs or oblige them to reveal their beliefs concerning spiritual matters. They also found that:-

“82.  …. Where a Contracting State includes religious instruction in the curriculum for study, it is then necessary, in so far as possible, to avoid a situation where pupils face a conflict between the religious education given by the school and the religious or philosophical convictions of their parents. In this connection, the Court notes that, with regard to religious instruction in Europe and in spite of the variety of teaching approaches, almost all of the member States offer at least one route by which pupils can opt out of religious education classes, by providing an exemption mechanism or the option of attending a lesson in a substitute subject, or making attendance at religious studies classes entirely optional (see Hasan and Elyem Zengin, cited above, § 71).”

All Patron bodies claim that their particular Patron’s course is suitable for children from all backgrounds. The Department of Education has decided for parents that curriculum Religious Education at second level is suitable for all children notwithstanding the fact that its main aim is to develop values in students to enable them to see the relevance of religion to their lives and relationships.

If children do manage to exercise their right to exemption from religion classes no other subject is offered. At second level they get less points in their Junior and Leaving Certificate for exercising a right on the basis of conscience. They are always left sitting in the religion class and the Guidelines from the Catholic Church give a list of books that they are permitted to read. They are not permitted to study another subject. The WRC found that it was not discrimination to refuse to give students that exercised their right to not attend, another subject.

The Department of Education has no guidelines in place, the Catholic Church does have guidelines in place and the Department supports these guidelines.

In their recent response to the Oireachtas Petitions Committee, the Department of Education stated that:-

“The Catholic Schools partnership has published guidance for its schools; Catholic Primary Schools in a Changing Ireland Sharing Good Practice on Inclusion of All Pupils which includes examples of practical arrangements and good practice for the inclusion of all pupils from various backgrounds in Catholic schools and how diversity can be expressed in the life of a school to make all feel welcomed and included.”

The exemption procedure from religion classes is left up to individual schools that operate according to Guidelines developed by private Patron bodies.

In Ireland the state has simply absolved itself of any responsibility in relation to the rights guaranteed under the European Convention and the Constitution and delegated that responsibility to schools. How long more can they get away with this behaviour?