European Human Rights Court Rules State May Deny Parents Right to Home School Their Children

BRUSSELS, September 27, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The European Court of Human Rights gave another setback to German homeschoolers by affirming that the interests of the State trump the rights of parents to educate their children. Yesterday, the Court denied a request from the parents of Joshua and Rebekka Konrad to rule Germany’s ban on homeschooling violates their human rights as parents to educate their own children under the European Convention on Human Rights.

Fritz and Marianna Konrad filed the human rights complaint in November 2003 on behalf of their children arguing that Germany’s compulsory school attendance severely endangers their children’s religious upbringing, and promotes teaching inconsistent with their Christian faith, especially the State’s mandate of sexual education.

The Konrads had appealed under Article 2 of Protocol No. 1 of the Convention which states, “No person shall be denied the right to education. In the exercise of any functions which it assumes in relation to education and to teaching, the State shall respect the right of parents to ensure such education and teaching is in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions.”

However, the Court decided in favor of Germany, stating that “Parents may not refuse the right to education of a child on the basis of their convictions” and adding that the right to education in Article 2 “by its very nature calls for regulation by the State.”

Although the Court admitted that “it cannot be formally said that the applicant parents are seeking to impose their religious convictions against their children’s will,” the Court upheld the findings of German Administrative Courts that “the applicant children were unable to foresee the consequences of their parents decision for home education because of their young age.”

The Court also agreed with the finding of German Administrative courts that “Schools represented society, and it was in the children’s interest to become part of that society. The parents’ right to education did not go as far as to deprive their children of that experience.”

While the Court postured itself as defending the rights of the child and declared the State to know better than parents the best interests of their children, it also endorsed a “carefully reasoned” decision of the German courts indicating the State had an interest in subordinating value systems competing with the state’s secular values. The Court agreed with the finding of Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court which stressed “the general interest of society to avoid the emergence of parallel societies based on separate philosophical convictions and the importance of integrating minorities into society.”

According to the Home School Legal Defense Association, nearly 40 homeschooling families are embroiled in legal battles with the assertive German state. HSLA reports in its September 22 E-lert that these families are facing persecution for trying to educate their children in a Christian (parallel) society without exposing them to the State’s harmful secular values, especially sex education.

Authorities have dealt with resistance to Hitler’s ban on homeschooling imposed on Germany in 1938 in a manner more consistent with Nazi Germany as families face imprisonment, heavy fines, the state seizure of their children, or are forced to seek asylum for their convictions in neighboring countries. (continued)

I can't believe the implications of some of the statements made in this article. It essentially states that the German state owns the children of German citizens.

"it cannot be formally said that the applicant parents are seeking to impose their religious convictions against their children’s will,”

Formally? IMPOSE?!!!! This is infuriating! In what way does the state have any say about how loving, caring parents want to teach their children, particularly on something as personal and as fundamental as religious beliefs? Impose their beliefs? Excuse me, but the parents aren't the ones imposing here!!

“the applicant children were unable to foresee the consequences of their parents decision for home education because of their young age.”
...but they should trust us more than their own parents...

And in what way is Christianity a competing value system in freakin' Germany?

This article has made more livid than I've been over a news story in a long time...

There is another side of this issue that you do not see and that is the importance of this compulsory education throughout Europe for the millions of Muslim legal and illegal immigrants

This has not helped this problem whatsoever over the past thirty years but to give this up -- the commission is probably terrified how it would accelerate radical in- bred islam

Further this is actually a payday for true believers not having preached the Gospel and won people over to Christ for the last 70-80 years in Europe -- when has there been revival in Europe that has jumped across borders and languages? According to the records I have read this has not occurred since the 1906 azusa street revival when it went global and all that stopped with the coming of WWI.

There is a lack today of Godly leaders in all of Europe and since there can be no vacuum Liberals and communists filled the posts and rewrote the world over their in their image and likeness -- this is a pay day it is an indictment against the last 2-4 generations over there of disobedient and lazy Christians who were content to huddle in their churches and breath deeply into the exhaust pipe of corrupt and self-seving doctrines that promoted this behavior as holy and just

and the sword of sin and judgment over the true believers in Europe is twofold edged first they have not obeyed the lord and plowed the feildsaround them and sowed the seed of the Gospel -- and even as bad as that is they have been in complete rebellion of God within their own households by not being obedient to God in being fruitful (to abound with great fruit in numbers)and multiply -- had at least these believers followed their great grand parents with having had large families for the last three generations their numbers would have increased 4-5 fold of what they are today and this would have affected things in government and all levels of society as they would have held some of these jobs and posts

What we see instead is that they are under a curse in Deuteronomy that if they were disobedient that God would cause them to be diminishshed to being few in numbers and then they would be blotted out.

There should be no doubt here on FR that Muslims are multiplying in Europe like mad there have been about a dozen articles on this on FR over the last year.

While the white and Christian populations in these countries are in free fall -- Russian in a recent article has lost in a few years over 2 million white and Christina people -- they are heading toward not being able to raise a standing army -- the article stated Russia would be overrun with Muslims and thus become Muslim within a few decades

The path of Europe is also on this same path and except their be a repentance of these nations on par with Jonah going to Nineveh -- within the next 25 years Europe with all its NATO bases and nukes with become Islamic and then all their efforts will be turned to Russia China and the US that will be the last men standing.

This same diseases in Europe and these same abject disobedience has been done in the US since the 1970's and our legislation has gone completely south since then -- and our population has stagnated while our enemies nationally have multiplied. -- We are heading down the same path as they -- we are however a generation or two behind them.

It is the duty of all Believers to have larger families and all families that would be patriots to their nation -- two children is not enough. Who is going to be in our standing army 10 and twenty years from now? Your children. Army recruiter tell us that over 40 percent or the children today are obese from having sat in a lifestyle of gaming and Internet play and can not meet the basic requirements to be accepted?

I foresee as Rome we may be compelled to hire foreigners to be our armies and defend us.

The implications of this is all incredivblry bad but at least in the US we still have time to turn this all around as believers -- we are not locked in the fate of the whole of Europe.

NUFF SAID

It's a return to the kind of European tyranny that the United States revolted against in 1776. Only now "the state" is a faceless bureaucracy instead of a kingly tyrant. Big difference. This is worse than Louis XIV.

Nope. There are good reasons to ban homeschooling in Europe. The thing is, that we Europeans think that all kids have a right on the same basic informations unregarded of the conceivabilities of their parents. This is the reason why there is no big discussion about this issue since there is a broad consensus in our societies about it. To allow homeschooling would mean that we give "rights" to some bigots on the expense of their kids freedom.

To give you a better example to understand our stance: If we would allow "homeschooling" we probably would lost the possibiliy to give information to the kids of islamistic immigrants i.e.. The chance on free information helped much more of them than you probably think to integrate perfectly into our country and to leave the diabolic part of their religion behind.

Of course Europe has other values and conventions like the USA. It is common here to give kids from 10 - 14 comprehensive information about sexual behaviour and contraception i.e.. But this is exactly the kind of free information that children of muslim or -in this case- Christian bigots will never get from their families.

Besides - it is possible to take influence on the curriculum of your kids, as long as you give them into a private school that provides a minimum of common information. My own three sons are going into a private catholic school that is runned by the Jesuites i.e.. I can not say that they are flooded with pornography (sarcasm) although they are informed about some basic things.

Personally I think it is unchristian to addle kids. Children have a right to know everthing but they need -of course- accompanying advice from their loving parents. The mixture between information and ethical values will make a mature person of them. If the information is missing they will find out that they are only "managed idiots" sooner or later since it is impossible to keep them away from our free society forever.

Greetings from Lake Constance - Germany!

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