Secularism

16 October 2014

Atheist Ireland’s human rights recommendations are now online on the OSCE website

Atheist Ireland’s recommendations to the OSCE human rights meeting in Warsaw last month are now available here on the OSCE website, along with the following documents: Our formal statements to the meeting, Dublin Declaration on Secularism and Religion in Public Life 5 steps to secularism...

3 October 2014

Protecting the human rights of atheists – Michael Nugent at the annual OSCE human rights meeting in Poland this week

This is video and text of Michael Nugent’s contributions to the annual OSCE human rights meeting in Warsaw, Poland, earlier this week. Contribution to Session on Discrimination The OSCE Guidelines for reviewing laws about freedom of religion or belief, stress the ‘or belief’ part of...

26 September 2014

Atheist Ireland Submission to UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

We’ve been working for most of this week on this submission to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. It is part of a process by which civil society groups provide input to the Committee as it prepares to question Ireland next...

15 September 2014

Religious crests on schools uniforms are symbols of discrimination

Atheist Ireland welcomes the comments of the Anglican Archbishop of Dublin regarding religious crests on school uniforms. In an article in the Sunday Independent Archbishop Michael Jackson (Anglican Archbishop of Dublin and Glendalough) said there should be “scope for negotiation” around the wearing of uniforms...

3 September 2014

Dr Ali Selim of the Islamic Cultural Centre calls for “revolution of inclusivity” in Irish schools and “an upheaval in Irish educational perspectives”

Atheist Ireland welcomes the above comments by Dr Ali Selim and invites the two publicly funded National schools under the patronage of the Islamic Foundation of Ireland to lead the way by including the children of atheists and secularists in their schools. The Islamic Foundation...

28 August 2014

Another school year and another 9 million of state funding to pay for Chaplains in schools.

Ireland funds School Chaplains and it costs the taxpayer 9 million a year. This funding is meant to help parents with the religious education of their children in the general school environment of some publicly funded second level schools. The 9 million is allocated to...

9 August 2014

How Irish law effectively prohibits non-denominational secular schools based on human rights

Irish law effectively prohibits non-denominational secular schools based on human rights, despite the Irish Government telling the UN Human Rights Committee last month that there are no obstacles to establishing such schools in Ireland. The Government did outline two requirements to the UN, that the...

3 August 2014

Children have a human right to a neutral studying environment, even in denominational schools

Last month Ireland appeared before the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva under the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights (ICCPR). Every five years the UN questions Ireland in relation to their human rights obligations under the Covenant. In relation to the right to...

3 August 2014

Educate Together is undermining the duty of the Irish State to provide non-denominational schools

Educate Together has made two statements recently that undermine the duty of the Irish Government to provide secular education though new non-denominational schools, as required by the UN Human Rights Committee. Educate Together is doing this by blurring the distinction between multi-denominational schools (which Educate...

3 August 2014

The new Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission should be mandated to monitor ICCPR rights

 This is Yuval Shany of the UN Human Rights Committee, during the Committee’s questioning of Ireland in Geneva in July. He is challenging the Irish State’s reasons for not mandating the new Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission to monitor human rights under the...