Ensuring Effective Remedies for an Objective, Critical and Pluralistic Secular Education
This is the response from Atheist Ireland to the interim report of the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism, submitted on 1 December 2011. The Forum is to send its final report to the Minister for Education by the end of December.
Contents
1. Overview
2. The right to an effective remedy
3. The religious integrated curriculum 4. Religious Education (ERB)
5. Opting out
6. The right to private and family life 7. Access to schools
8. Conclusion
1. Overview
1.1 We have four overriding recommendations for the final report.
1.2 * To comply with your terms of reference, your advice must be stronger and must be enforceable. You are mandated to advise on how best to “ensure” that certain outcomes can happen, not simply on how best to make those outcomes more likely.i
1.3 * The final report must include effective remedies that enable parents and students to vindicate in practice and law their right to ensure that the education of their children is in conformity with their convictions, as enshrined in Human Rights treaties and based on rulings of the European Court of Human Rights.
1.4 * Whatever their model of patronage, the State must ensure that all schools convey all parts of the curriculum in an “objective, critical and pluralistic manner”, as recommended by the Irish Human Rights Commission, as enshrined in the Toledo Guiding Principles, and as ruled on by the ECHR.
1.5 * Ensuring “a sufficiently diverse number and range of primary schools catering for all religions and none” must in practice ensure that secular non-denominational schools are widely available in all regions of the State, as noted by the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
1.6 We also make other specific recommendations throughout this response, including on ERB, opting out, the right to private and family life and access to schools.
1.7 The interim report fails to vindicate the human right of parents who want their children educated in conformity with secular convictions.
1.8 The European Convention obliges the State to respect the right of parents to ensure that the education and teaching of their children is “in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions” (Article 2 of Protocol 1).ii The ECHR has stated that the secular viewpoint is worthy of respect in a democratic society, and must be regarded as a “philosophical conviction” within the meaning of the Convention. iii
1.9 The European Court of Human Rights has said this obligation on the State:
(a) presupposes that the parents’ choice between public and private education be respected, and also that teaching be neutral. iv
(b) is binding upon the State in the exercise of “each and every” function that it undertakes in the sphere of education and teaching. The State cannot absolve itself from responsibility by delegating its obligations to private bodies or individuals.v The State must provide itself with the means of efficiently establishing and punishing violations. vi
1.10 The Forum does not seem to appreciate the obligation to respect secularism as a legitimate philosophical conviction.
1.11 The opening presentation explicitly disrespected a core secular belief, in a way that we suspect you would not even consider disrespecting any religious beliefs, by describing the suggested removal of crucifixes in classrooms as “sensationalist nonsense”.vii
1.12 The right to a classroom free of religious symbols is central to mainstream secularism, and is not an extremist position. The European Court of Human Rights upheld this right in Italy as protecting freedom of conscience. This was overturned on appeal, citing the otherwise secular nature of Italian state schools. viii The situation is different in Ireland, where we do not have secular state schools to counterbalance the influence of symbols.
1.13 We ask you to reconsider this issue, resisting any preconceptions that it is “sensationalist nonsense”. Please clarify that you have fully considered it as a legitimate proposal, and explain in this context the reasoning behind whatever you advise about it.
1.14 The interim report’s domestic appeals mechanism will not enforce the substance of Convention rights.
1.15 It has not yet been determined whether schools governed by the Education Act 1998 are “organs of the state”ix for the purposes of the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2004. If they are not, then the interim report’s domestic appeals mechanism will not enforce the substance of Convention rights. This also raises issues with regard to Article 42.3.1 of the Irish Constitution and the compatibility of the education system with Ireland’s human rights obligations. x There is no legal aid for these matters and the prohibitive costs of legal action against the state are a deterrent to parents.
1.16 Any appeals mechanism must guarantee that the investigation and remedy is in accordance with the European Convention in practice and in law. xi The European Convention is intended to guarantee not rights that are theoretical or illusory but rights that are practical and effective (Article 6, 13 EC). xii
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