In my opinion: Trouble looms for State over schools' religious ethos
Trouble is looming for the Irish education system as the UN Human Rights Committee, in their concluding observations under the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights (ICCPR), have asked the government to ensure that non-denominational education is available throughout the country.
The UN said the existing religious integrated curriculum, or religious ethos, is denying children access to a secular education.
By ratifying the ICCPR, Ireland has accepted that all the rights recognised in the covenant are guaranteed by the Irish state. The UN are now pointing out that, contrary to what Ireland has agreed, we are not upholding certain rights in our education system. The rights they refer to are Freedom from Discrimination (Article 2 of the Covenant); Freedom of Conscience (Article 18); the Rights of the Child (Article 24); and Equality before the law (Article 26).
These are basic fundamental human rights guaranteed under every Convention that Ireland has ratified, including the European Convention on Human Rights. On the face of it, our Constitution guarantees all these rights, so where has it all gone wrong?
The Government say they are not responsible for education, as under Article 42.4 of our Constitution they are only obliged to "provide for" education. They have not taken on board the fact that education is a fundamental human right.
The European Court of Human Rights has said that the right of everyone to education is guaranteed equally to pupils in state and private schools. Therefore, a state cannot absolve itself from responsibility by delegating its obligations to private bodies.
It is clear now from the UN report that because education is a human right, the Irish State must ensure the rights in the ICCPR are guaranteed in the education system to all children in Ireland.
The Government's report to the UN mentions that the Education Act recognises the right of schools to have their own distinctive "characteristic spirit" in accordance with the Constitution. The Government maintains that this provision is in compliance with the ICCPR. They never explain that this "characteristic spirit" is part of a religious integrated curriculum, or that under the Equal Status Act children can be, and were, refused access to schools in 2007.
The Constitution's provision the Government are referring to is Article 44.2.4. This article sanctions state funding of denominational education but was also meant to protect the rights of minorities attending denominational schools. In reality, it provides no protection. The Constitutional Review Groups Report 1995 spelt out the difficulties with Article 44.2.4.
"if Article 44.2.4 did not provide safeguards, the State might well be in breach of its international obligations".
Now the UN Human Rights Committee has caught up with the actual reality of our education system.
The Government is due to report back to the UN this year on the implementation of the UN Committee's recommendations. In the meantime, a follow-up conference has been organised by Irish NGOs to ensure pressure is kept on the government to follow up on the Committee's recommendations. The Conference is on April 6, at 10am, at the Radisson SAS Hotel in Golden Lane, Dublin 8. http://rightsmonitor.org/
- Jane Donnelly
