How Inclusive Do Religious Schools Need to Be to Respect Individual Rights to Freedom of Religion?
by David Katz Rotnitzky
Question(s) at stake
Whether the enrolment of a child from an agnostic family in a state-funded Catholic school infringes on the right of parents to give their children a moral and religious education in accordance with their own convictions.
Outcome of the ruling
The Court annulled the original administrative decision and ordered the provincial education authority to ensure the child’s admission to a public school, considering the exceptional circumstances and the parents’ right to ensure that their children receive religious and moral instruction in accordance with their own convictions.
Country:
Official citation
High Court of Justice Aragon, Judgment of 17 February 2017, no. 60/2017 (Tribunal Superior de Justicia Aragón, Sentencia de 17 de febrero de 2017, Sentencia número 60/2017)
Topic(s)
Keywords:
Freedom of thought, conscience and religion Right of parents to ensure the religious and moral education of their children State neutrality State-funded schools Best interests of the child
Tag(s):
Positive and negative religious freedom Indoctrination Educational ethos
Bibliographic information
Access case report
View case report in the CUREDI databaseAbout the authors
David Katz Rotnitzky (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Department Law and Anthropology, Germany)
David Katz is a PhD Candidate in the Law & Anthropology Department at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle. He holds a bachelor’s degree in social and cultural anthropology from the University of Barcelona (Spain), and was awarded the European Master’s Degree in Human Rights and Democratization by the European Inter University Centre in Venice (Italy), for which he spent a semester at the UNESCO Chair on Education for Human Rights, Democracy and Peace at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece). In his master’s thesis, “Deconstructing the Right to Freedom of Religion or Belief in Human Rights: A Multidisciplinary Approach on Antisemitism towards the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki”, he analysed the right to freedom of religion and belief and the correlation between the inherent antisemitism in some spheres of Greek society and the limits on the enjoyment of religious rights by the Jewish community of Thessaloniki. His current research falls within the project “Cultural and Religious Diversity under State Law across Europe” (CUREDI).