Right to Religious Freedom: Must children participate in religious instruction?

In Austria, parents may withdraw their children from religious instruction classes, for example, if the children’s religion is not Roman Catholic or if the parents do not have a religious affiliation. The father of a Russian Orthodox child withdrew his child from religious instruction classes, without, however, officially leaving the Church. After some time, he determined that the child was actually participating in Catholic religious instruction. Thus was justified by the school with technical considerations relative to child care. When the father put forth his intention of lodging a complaint with the AOB, the child was suddenly cared for otherwise after all. As a result, the AOB conducted an ex-officio investigative proceeding.

Apparently the originally selected course of action by the school in question was based on an old directive. According to this directive, there are no reservations against the mere physical presence of a student in a religious instruction class that is due to supervisory duties if the school’s supervisory duties cannot be met in any other way. As the initial reaction of the school in question shows, this provision seems to be somewhat broadly interpreted in some schools.

Therefore, it is probably not a rare occurrence for children belonging to religions other than Roman Catholicism or children without a religious affiliation to de facto actually be obliged to participate in religious instruction classes. This contradicts the intention of some parents who find it important for their child not to come into contact with certain religious content. These problems are not limited to participation in Catholic religious instruction, but also to classes that are dedicated to other religions. However, due to the presumed frequency, the ex-officio investigative proceeding concentrated on Catholic religious instruction.

A newer version of the directive dated 2007 stipulates that it should basically be an organisational objective that students who do not participate in religious instruction should not remain in the class group during these classes.

The right to religious freedom pursuant to Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights contains the positive component of enabling a person to freely choose a religion. However, it also has the negative component of specifically deciding to have no religious affiliation. The European Court of Justice for Human Rights has recently emphasised this in its “crucifix ruling” that received a great deal of attention. Furthermore, one must respect the parents’ right to be guaranteed that their children will be raised according to their values. The right to not have their children participate in religious instruction is associated with this. From the perspective of the AOB, there is potential here to give greater consideration to this fundamental dimension.