Parents’ rights in schools should not depend on surveying the views of their neighbours
The Department of Eduction is continuing the fiction that the government is transferring patronage of Catholic primary schools in any meaningful way. The Department is also complicating the matter by saying that parents of pupils at Catholic primary schools are to be surveyed to assess the level of support for ...
Schools ignore obligations under Constitution and European Convention on Human Rights
The Court of Appeal found that, when it interprets the obligations of a Board of Management under the Education Act 1998, it must have regard to the terms of the European Convention on Human Rights. Probably no Board of Management in the country is even aware what obligations they have ...
UN calls for evidence-based sex education in Ireland. This requires amending the Education Act on ethos.
Atheist Ireland has for years been raising the issue of objective sex education with the United Nations. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child included the following in its recent concluding observations about Ireland: Adolescent health (b) Integrate comprehensive, age-appropriate and evidence-based education on sexual and reproductive health into ...
United Nations is asking Ireland about the right to an alternative to religion class in schools
Atheist Ireland will be attending the 92nd session of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva later this month. This UN Committee will be questioning Ireland, and we have made a joint submission with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland. You can find ...
Atheist Ireland submission to UN on combating intolerance based on religion or belief
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 ...
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 ...
Atheist Ireland lobbying at the United Nations for the rights of children in Irish schools
Atheist Ireland was at the United Nations in Geneva this week lobbying for the rights of children in Irish schools that discriminate on the ground of religion. We also represented the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Ireland, with whom we made a joint submission to the ...
Schools cannot oblige students to attend Syllabus Religious Education at second level
Syllabus Religious Education at second level is not an objective course about religions and beliefs, and parents have a Constitutional right to ensure that their children do not attend this class. You can find information, and a sample letter for Catholic and ETB schools and colleges, on our website Teach, ...
Protecting the rights of children from religious discrimination in Irish schools
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child will be questioning Ireland next year. Atheist Ireland, the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland, and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Ireland, have made this joint submission to the UN on freedom of religion and belief in Irish schools. Our Recommendations The ...
Northern Ireland court case supports rights of parents and students in schools in the Republic
The Northern Ireland High Court has found that schools breached the human rights of nonreligious parents. The state Religious Education course and the Collective Worship in schools breached the parents’ right to respect for their convictions and also their right to freedom of conscience, religion and belief. The case was ...