{"id":189458,"date":"2025-11-19T18:59:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T18:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/189458\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T18:59:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T18:59:09","slug":"norths-religious-education-is-in-breach-of-human-rights-law-uk-court-rules-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/189458\/","title":{"rendered":"North\u2019s religious education is in breach of human rights law, UK court rules \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Religious education<\/a> in Northern Ireland<\/a> is in breach of human rights legislation and is unlawful, the UK Supreme Court<\/a> has ruled. <\/p>\n

In a judgment delivered on Wednesday, the court unanimously upheld an appeal brought by a Belfast<\/a> primary school pupil, known as JR87, and her father. <\/p>\n

It followed a ruling by the High Court in Belfast in 2022 that religious<\/a> education and Christian worship were not conveyed in an \u201cobjective, critical and pluralistic manner\u201d and therefore breached the European Convention on Human Rights<\/a> (ECHR). <\/p>\n

The Northern Ireland Department of Education subsequently won an appeal against part of that judgment. On Wednesday the Supreme Court reinstated the High Court\u2019s decision and dismissed the Department\u2019s cross-appeal. <\/p>\n

In a statement, the Department said it would \u201ccarefully consider the complex judgment and its implications and will provide advice to schools in the near future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The child and her father, who are not named, sought a judicial review after she received non-denominational Christian religious education and collective worship as part of the curriculum at her primary school. <\/p>\n

Her parents \u201cdid not wish her to be taught that Christianity was an absolute truth\u201d and wrote to the school in 2019 voicing concerns that her education \u201cdid not appear to conform with their own religious and philosophical convictions\u201d.<\/p>\n

The religious education curriculum in Northern Ireland was developed by the department and the four main Christian churches. At primary school, the curriculum is exclusively focused on Christianity, with pupils only taught about other world religions at post-primary level. <\/p>\n

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JR87\u2019s solicitor, Darragh Mackin of Phoenix Law, said it was a \u201cwatershed moment for educational rights\u201d in Northern Ireland. The Supreme Court has confirmed all children are \u201centitled to an education that respects their freedom of thought, conscience, and religion\u201d, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe judgment makes clear that the state cannot rely on withdrawal mechanisms to justify religious instruction,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cSchools must not place children in the impossible position of being singled out or stigmatised simply because their families do not share the religious worldview embedded in the curriculum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Mackin said there is now a \u201cclear responsibility\u201d on the Department of Education to review and reform its religious education curriculum to make it human rights compliant and reflective of the North\u2019s diversity.<\/p>\n

Boyd Sleator, the Northern Ireland co-ordinator for Humanists UK, said the judgment is a \u201chistoric win for the rights of children\u201d and should prompt governments across the devolved nations of the UK \u201cto revisit the requirement for mandatory collective worship, we hope it is now repealed.\u201d <\/p>\n

The DUP, which holds the Education portfolio at Stormont, said it would \u201ccontinue to stand up for the Christian ethos of our schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, the MP Carla Lockhart said Northern Ireland was \u201cfortunate\u201d to have her party colleague, Paul Givan, as Minister for Education, as he \u201cunderstands the importance of those Christian foundations and who is committed to safeguarding them within the framework of the law.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Alliance Party\u2019s education spokesman, Nick Mathison MLA, said it was a \u201cwelcome recognition of diversity in wider society\u201d and called on the Minister for Education to provide guidance for schools. <\/p>\n

Delivering the Supreme Court judgment on behalf of five law lords on Wednesday, Lord Justice Stephens said the Court of Appeal had upheld the High Court finding that religious education and collective worship \u201cwere not conveyed in an objective, critical and pluralistic manner\u201d. <\/p>\n

However, the Court of Appeal \u201cheld that the existence of the parents\u2019 unqualified statutory right to withdraw JR meant the state was not pursuing the forbidden aim of indoctrination\u201d and it \u201cvery much doubted the fears of stigmatisation … would have been realised in practice\u201d. <\/p>\n

This interpretation was unanimously rejected by the Supreme Court, which found the Court of Appeal \u201cshould not have departed from Mr Justice Colton\u2019s finding that the parents had valid concerns in relation to withdrawing JR87 from religious education and collective worship\u201d.<\/p>\n

These included that JR87, who was then aged between four and seven years old, would have been the only child in the school to be withdrawn from religious education and collective worship. <\/p>\n

Lord Justice Stephens said the Court of Appeal \u201cfell into error in making a distinction between indoctrination and the state conveying informational knowledge in a manner which was not objective, critical and pluralistic\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said the concepts \u201care two sides of the same coin\u201d and amounted to \u201cpursuing the aim of indoctrination\u201d.<\/p>\n

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The senior judge said the High Court judge had been \u201ccorrect\u201d to find both JR87 and her father\u2019s human rights have been breached. <\/p>\n

In that High Court judgment, delivered in 2022, Mr Justice Colton said a \u201creconsideration of the core curriculum\u201d and legislation regarding the teaching of religious education was required, and noted that the matter was \u201ccurrently under review.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teaching of religion and Christian worship in schools should be made compliant with the relevant provisions of the ECHR, the judge said. <\/p>\n

Analysis: battle lines drawn over future of Christian teaching in North\u2019s primary schools \"Photograph:Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill \/ The Irish Times<\/p>\n

Photograph: Dara Mac Donaill \/ The Irish Times <\/p>\n

In Northern Ireland, the religious education syllabus begins with \u201cthe revelation of God\u201d.<\/p>\n

The focus at primary school is on \u201ckey Christian teachings\u201d; it is not until post-primary school that other religions are introduced. <\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the UK Supreme Court unanimously upheld a 2022 High Court ruling in a judicial review taken by a child, JR87, and her father, against the Northern Ireland Department of Education that religious education and Christian worship in Northern schools were not conveyed in an \u201cobjective, critical and pluralistic manner\u201d and were therefore unlawful and breached the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). <\/p>\n

JR87\u2019s parents had noticed the changes in their daughter. From a non-religious family, she was four years old when she began attending a controlled primary school, a common form of state-funded school, in Belfast. <\/p>\n

Two years later, her parents were worried that \u2013 as outlined by the High Court judge \u2013 \u201cshe had absorbed and adopted a religious (specifically Christian) worldview which was not consistent with their own views and beliefs\u201d.<\/p>\n

She \u201cnow believes that God made the world\u201d and at snack time, repeated a prayer she learned at school. <\/p>\n

JR87\u2019s background is far from unique. As part of that judgment, Mr Justice Colton cited what were then the most up-to-date figures from the Department of Education on the religion of pupils attending controlled primary schools in Northern Ireland. <\/p>\n

In 2020\/21, 48,896 Protestant children and 6,281 Catholics attended such schools, alongside 25,453 pupils registered as belonging to other denominations, non-Christian, or of no religion \u2013 approximately 32 per cent. <\/p>\n

This is the reality in contemporary Northern Ireland, a society which is increasingly diverse, increasingly secular, and increasingly out of step with a religious curriculum published in 2007 and developed with the input of solely Christian churches. <\/p>\n

The curriculum must now be re-examined \u2013 and made ECHR-compliant – in the light of the Supreme Court\u2019s judgement. <\/p>\n

\u201cNorthern Ireland has changed a lot since the last core curriculum was put together, I think it\u2019s certainly time for a revision of what we teach and how we teach,\u201d the Catholic Bishop of Derry, Donal McKeown, told the BBC. <\/p>\n

In practice, this is likely to amount to a more pluralist approach to religious education, with other religions introduced into the curriculum at an earlier age. <\/p>\n

Yet, at the risk of stating the obvious, this is a post-conflict society where religion and politics has long been intertwined and, for some, any such change will be controversial. <\/p>\n

The DUP holds the education portfolio, and Carla Lockhart MP emphasised on Wednesday that Northern Ireland was \u201cfortunate\u201d to have in Paul Givan \u201can Education Minister who understands the importance of those Christian foundations and who is committed to safeguarding them within the framework of the law\u201d.<\/p>\n

The battle lines are being drawn. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Religious education in Northern Ireland is in breach of human rights legislation and is unlawful, the UK Supreme…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[663,9,10,23937,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,954,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-189458","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-belfast","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-european-convention-of-human-rights-echr","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-latest-news","16":"tag-latestnews","17":"tag-main-news","18":"tag-mainnews","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-northern-ireland","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories","23":"tag-world","24":"tag-world-news","25":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115577904928348596","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}