In the case yesterday at the Supreme Court in the UK on the Northern Ireland education system, the court found that:
- The religious education course in Northern Ireland Schools was ‘indoctrination’.
- Northern Ireland was pursuing an aim of indoctrination by not ‘respecting’ parents’ philosophical beliefs.
- There was a positive obligation on the state to respect all parents’ convictions be they religious or philosophical beliefs.
What does ‘respect’ mean under the European Court principles?
The European court held in the Folgero v Norway case that ‘respect’ means the following”-
“The verb “respect” means more than “acknowledge” or “take into account”. In addition to a primarily negative undertaking, it implies some positive obligation on the part of the State. The term “conviction”, taken on its own, is not synonymous with the words “opinions” and “ideas”. It denotes views that attain a certain level of cogency, seriousness, cohesion and importance (see Valsamis, cited above, pp. 2323-24, §§ 25 and 27, and Campbell and Cosans, cited above, pp. 16-17, §§ 36-37).”
This definition of ‘respect’ is now a General Principle of the European court. For non-religious parents this means that there is not just a negative right to e.g., exempt their children from religious education. There is a positive obligation on the state to ‘respect’ their philosophical beliefs.
States must respect parent’s religious and philosophical convictions by ensuring that any education and teaching is objective, critical and pluralistic. That is the limit that must not be exceeded. It is a positive obligation as well as a negative obligation.
However, the Irish state, Patron bodies and schools only view the right to respect philosophical beliefs as a negative right. They view religious beliefs as a positive right to respect and also a negative right.
What does Irish law say about ‘respect’?
Under Irish law (Section 15-2(e) of the Education Act 1998, Boards of Management are obliged to respect and promote respect for the diversity of values and beliefs.
Section 15 – 2(e) states that:-
A Board shall perform the functions conferred on it and on a school by this Act and in carrying out its functions the board shall –
Have regard to the principles and requirements of a democratic society and have respect and promote respect for the diversity of values, beliefs, traditions, languages and ways of life in society.”
However, the term ‘respect’ is not defined in the Act. There are no state regulations or guidelines that interpret what ‘respect’ means under the Act, or oblige schools to ‘respect’ all beliefs. This means School Inspectors have no role in ensuring that students in Irish schools are not indoctrinated. There is no oversight by the state at all.
In the Burke case at the Court of Appeal in 2023, Justice Whelan stated that:
“The European Convention on Human Rights
- The European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003 provides:
“2.(1) In interpreting and applying any statutory provision or rule of law, a court shall, in so far as possible, subject to the rules of law relating to such interpretation and application, do so in a manner compatible with the State’s obligations under the Convention provisions.
Thus in interpreting the obligations of the Board pursuant to the Education Act 1998 (as amended) regard must be had to the terms of the Convention.”
In practice, schools respect parents’ beliefs according to their own ethos. Human rights law simply doesn’t come into it.
Boards of Managements are legally obliged to uphold the ethos of the Patron under Section 15-2(b) of the Education Act 1998, and that is what they do. They do not ‘respect’ all parents’ convictions in the school by “more than acknowledging or taking into account” their beliefs.
How can you expect them to understand their legal obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights Act if there are no statutory guidelines in place?
Atheist Ireland’s Submission on respecting beliefs
Last June Atheist Ireland sent a Submission to the Oireachtas Education Committee in relation to freedom of conscience, religion and belief and respecting all parents’ convictions in the education system, we stated that:-
This submission addresses the right to freedom of conscience, religion, and belief in the Irish education system. It highlights how current practices fail to respect and protect the philosophical convictions of nonreligious parents, children, and teachers. We ask the Committee to support statutory guidelines that would ensure respect for all belief systems in publicly funded schools, in line with constitutional and international human rights obligations.
Philosophical beliefs in Ireland
According to the last census the non-religious are now the second largest group in society after Catholics. This continues a consistent pattern of Irish society becoming more pluralist, and the need for a secular state to protect everyone’s rights.
- Over a million (or one in every five) Irish people either said they have no religion (14%) or declined to state a religion (7%).
- 740,000 people (14.4%) either ticked ‘No Religion’ or wrote in atheist or agnostic. This is up from 480,000 in 2016.
- Another 345,000 people (6.7%) declined to answer the religion question.
- The figure for Roman Catholics has dipped to 69%, despite a leading question that artificially inflates the number of religious responses.
- In reality, the evidence of day to day life, including Church attendances, indicates that far more than one in five Irish people are not religious.
Of significance to Atheist Ireland, the census found that the 25 to 29 age category were less likely to be Roman Catholic (53%) than other age groups. This is also the age cohort with the highest proportion of people with no religion (26%) and the age group most likely to become parents in the next 5-10 years.
Given this fact, you would think that schools would teach about non-religious beliefs in the same manner as they teach about the five major world religions. They don’t, because they do not believe there is a positive obligation to “more than acknowledge or take into account” non-religious philosophical beliefs.
How do schools treat non-religious beliefs?
The Catholic Church doesn’t accept that atheism and humanism are even beliefs, , they hardly mention them at all. They never mention secularism. That doesn’t constitute ‘respect’ for our convictions.
The multi-denominational schools at primary level teach about the five major world religions, but they don’t teach about non-religious beliefs in the same manner. The Community National Schools claims they teach about and from religion.
That doesn’t constitute respect for our beliefs. We were once told by a Patron body that they can’t say directly to children that atheists don’t believe in gods because religious parents might be offended!
The main aim of the state religious education course at second level is to develop values to enable students to come to an understanding of religion and its relevance to life and relationships.
This is not objective, critical and pluralistic and is therefore indoctrination. It certainly doesn’t “more than acknowledge or take into account” our non-religious philosophical beliefs.
Conclusion
The state and Patron bodies acknowledge we exist, they claim to respect our convictions but they don’t respect non-religious beliefs in the same way that they respect the five main world religions.
The reason for this is that the state and consequently Patron bodies do not believe that there is a positive obligation as well as a negative obligation to respect non-religious philosophical beliefs.
The state has put no statutory guidelines in place. Respect means “more than acknowledge or take into account“, it is more that a negative right to not attend faith formation.
The UK Supreme Court has now found that Northern Ireland must respect families with non-religious philosophical beliefs. Atheist Ireland continues to campaign for us to have that same respect here.