EDUCATION ACTIVISTS HAVE hit out at the State for rejecting UN recommendations that Ireland modify the denominational system.
Education Equality claimed the government has defended the status quo by refusing to take on board any of the insights of the 47 members of the UN’s Human Rights Council.
Speaking in response to the State’s rejection of the outcome of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on Friday, the advocacy group’s chairperson April Duff said:
Yet again Ireland’s religious minorities have been let down by their government.
“Over 95% of Irish primary schools are under the patronage of religious denominations and the State seems determined to ignore the implications of this arrangement for religious freedom in Ireland,” she claimed.
“In rejecting the UPR Working Group’s considered recommendations, the State has chosen to allow religious discrimination to continue.”
Duff added that the State has a responsibility to make school a welcoming place for everyone and that the beliefs of a child’s parents shouldn’t determine where they go to school.
She said: ”It is a breach of human rights for the State to allow its schools to continue to treat children from minority religious backgrounds as second-class citizens, and to impose religious instruction and practice upon those children against their parents’ conscience and lawful preference. The status quo is long past its sell-by date.”
This is not the first time the government has refused to implement UN findings.
The international body has recommended the country also alters its stance on abortion legislation.
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) believes the government-established Citizen’s Assembly is not sufficient to fulfil the recommendations made by member states and UN treaty monitoring bodies.
UN recommendations on housing rights, the ethnicity of Travellers and sex education have not been adequately dealt with, according to the ICCL.
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