The United Nations is examining Ireland this year under the Universal Periodic Review. This is a unique UN Human Rights Council mechanism, established in 2006, that reviews the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States every four and a half years.
Atheist Ireland has made the following submission to this process.
1. Introduction
About Atheist Ireland
Atheist Ireland is an independent Irish advocacy body with UN Special Consultative Status, and a participant in the Irish State dialogue process with faith and philosophical/non-confessional bodies under Article 17 of the EU Lisbon Treaty.
We promote atheism, reason, and an ethical secular state based on human rights principles. We regularly make submissions to and attend relevant UN human rights reviews of Ireland.
Recommendations
Discrimination
1. Amend the Equal Status Act to protect philosophical beliefs from discrimination in line with Article 18 of the ICCPR.
2. Amend the Equal Status and Employment Equality Acts to remove all forms of discrimination on the ground of religion.
3. Remove all discrimination against secular bodies introduced by the Civil Registration Amendment Act 2012.
4. Improve implementation of laws against discrimination for members of religious minority groups, particularly those with migrants and ethnic or racial minorities.
Freedom of Religion or Belief
5. Commit to holding a referendum to amend the Constitution to remove compulsory religious declarations for public office and replace them with a single neutral declaration compatible with freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief.
Education
6. Ensure that children and parents have real access to neutral and objective education, in accordance with General Comment 22 on Article 18 of the ICCPR, including through non-denominational schools and non-discriminatory exemptions from religious instruction/education.
2. Discrimination
Recommendation 1: Amend the Equal Status Act to protect philosophical beliefs from discrimination in line with Article 18 of the ICCPR.
Reasons: Ireland’s anti-discrimination laws do not protect philosophical beliefs, and nothing material has changed since the last UPR review.
Article 40.1 of the Constitution states that all citizens shall be held equal before the law. However, Section 3-2(e) of the Equal Status Act 2000 defines the religion ground only by reference to religious belief or the absence of religious belief:
“that one has a different religious belief from the other, or that one has a religious belief and the other has not (the “religion ground”),”
This does not expressly protect philosophical beliefs and is inconsistent with General Comment 22, which protects theistic, non-theistic and atheistic beliefs, as well as the right not to profess any religion or belief. It is also inconsistent with General Comment 31 on Article 2 of the ICCPR.
The State has not amended the Equal Status Act to align it with this human rights standard.
Recommendation 2: Amend the Equal Status and Employment Equality Acts to remove all forms of discrimination on the ground of religion.
Reasons: Section 7 of the Equal Status Act allows publicly funded second-level schools with a religious ethos to prefer co-religionists. They can also refuse access where they believe and can prove a child will undermine their ethos.
Since the introduction of the Education Admissions to Schools Act 2018 most primary-level schools can no longer give preference to co-religionists. We welcome this. However, they can still refuse access where they believe and can prove a child would undermine their ethos.
Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act obliges teachers in publicly-funded schools to uphold the ethos of the patron:
“A religious, educational or medical institution which is under the direction or control of a body established for religious purposes … shall not be taken to discriminate against a person (if)…
(a) It gives more favourable treatment, on the religion ground, to an employee or a prospective employee over that person where it is reasonable to do so in order to maintain the religious ethos of the institution, or
(b) It takes action which is reasonably necessary to prevent an employee or a prospective employee from undermining the religious ethos of the institution.”
Most Irish schools are under religious patronage, mainly Catholic. Non-Catholic teachers from migrant backgrounds can face barriers accessing the teaching profession because they are obliged to uphold the ethos of the patron body.
Catholic schools may require teachers to hold a Certificate in Religious Studies, and they are obliged under contract to teach Catholic religious instruction.
Because racial and religious discrimination often overlap, this affects religious minorities as well as those with philosophical beliefs.
Recommendation 3: Remove all discrimination against secular bodies introduced in the Civil Registration Amendment Act 2012
Reasons: Irish law discriminates in the solemnisation of marriages, purportedly to protect the institution of marriage.
Under section 3 of the Civil Registration Amendment Act, a body qualifies as a secular body only if it has at least 50 members, has existed for at least five years, maintains a register of members, is a registered charity, does not promote a political cause, and has principal objects that are secular, ethical and humanist. None of these conditions applies to religious bodies.
A key restriction is that a secular body that solemnises marriages cannot promote a political cause. This means that the Humanist Association of Ireland, because it can nominate solemnisers, can no longer promote political causes such as reform of the Constitution, equality law, or the education system.
Recommendation 4: Improve implementation of laws against discrimination for members of religious minority groups, particularly those with migrants and ethnic or racial minorities.
Reason: Articles 18, 26, and 27 of the ICCPR protect faith-based religious minorities through several overlapping guarantees. Articles 2 and 5 of CERD require the State to address overlapping racial or ethnic discrimination. Two such religious minorities in Ireland with migrant members are the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Ireland.
This recommendation is consistent with the last UPR’s recommendation 157.81 from the United States, which Ireland accepted.
Freedom of Religion or Belief
Recommendation 5: Commit to holding a referendum to amend the Constitution to remove compulsory religious declarations for public office and replace them with a single neutral declaration compatible with freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief.
Reason: Ireland’s Constitution requires religious oaths for the President, Judges, and members of the Council of State. These provisions discriminate against non-religious citizens, and against anyone whose conscience does not permit a religious declaration, by attaching religious conditions to public office.
Although Ireland’s UPR reviews have not yet addressed this directly, other UN human rights bodies have done so.
In Shortall & others v Ireland, decided by the European Court in 2021, the application failed because the applicants were not directly affected. However, the Court set out the issues involved and referred specifically to Ireland’s engagement with the UN Human Rights Committee on religious oaths in the Constitution.
Article 44 of the Constitution guarantees freedom of conscience and prohibits discrimination on the ground of religious belief. However, Articles 12, 31 and 34 require office-holders to make declarations beginning with “In the presence of Almighty God”, and in the case of the President and judges ending with “May God direct and sustain me.”
Because the Council of State includes the Taoiseach, Tánaiste, Chief Justice, President of the Court of Appeal, President of the High Court, Ceann Comhairle, Cathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann, and Attorney General, these provisions affect a wide range of public offices.
Education
Recommendation 6: Ensure that children and parents have real access to neutral and objective education, in accordance with General Comment 22 on Article 18 of the ICCPR, including through non-denominational schools and non-discriminatory exemptions from religious instruction/education.
Reasons: At its last UPR, Ireland supported recommendation 157.129 from Czechia:
“Improve the system providing children and their parents a real opportunity to choose from among religious, multi-denominational or non-denominational types of schooling and curricula.”
Since then, Ireland has not opened non-denominational secular schools or ensured access to neutral and objective curricula. It continues to ignore repeated concluding observations over the years from the UN and Council of Europe human rights bodies.
- United Nations Concluding observations on the Irish education system
- Council of Europe Concluding observations on the Irish education system
A Convention on Education has recently been established. The State describes this as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to shape Ireland’s education system. However, no groups representing philosophical beliefs have been invited as stakeholders, despite longstanding UN concern about freedom of conscience, discrimination and equality in education.
The Department of Education and Youth’s Statement of Strategy 2025 – 2028 acknowledges its human rights and equality duties:
“Under Section 42.2 of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014, the Department is required to set out in its Statement of Strategy an assessment of the human rights and equality issues that it believes to be relevant to its functions and purpose as well as the actions that it is currently taking or proposes to take to address those issues.”
However, the Department includes no goals in relation to the right to freedom of conscience of minorities in publicly funded schools.
The State ‘Provides For’ Education through Private Patron Bodies
Under Article 42.4 of the Constitution, the State ‘provides for’ rather than directly provides education:
“The State shall provide for free primary education and shall endeavour to supplement and give reasonable aid to private and corporate educational initiative, and, when the public good requires it, provide other educational facilities or institutions with due regard, however, for the rights of parents, especially in the matter of religious and moral formation.”
In practice, the State has chosen to do so through private patron bodies.
Section 8 of the Education Act 1998 reflects this position. Patron bodies are legally recognised and registered with the Department of Education as the patron of various schools at primary and second level.
There are no non-denominational schools with a secular ethos at either level.
Primary Level Schools
88.3% Catholic
6.2% Other religions, mainly Church of Ireland
5.5% Multi-denominational
0% Non-denominational
Second Level Schools
47% Catholic
29% Multi-denominational
20% Interdenominational
4% Other religions
0% Non-denominational
Patrons’ Programmes on Religion
Under Section 15-2(b) of the Education Act 1998, Boards of Management must uphold the ‘Characteristic Spirit’ (ethos) of the patron of the school.
Patron bodies may design and implement their own course/programme in accordance with that ethos. Under Section 30-2-(d), time is left during the school day for instruction reflecting it. That time slot is about two hours per week.
The New Primary School Framework says the patron’s programme forms part of children’s learning experience. There is no State inspection of patron’s programmes.
The ethos is not confined to the patron’s programme. It can permeate the whole State curriculum and the general atmosphere of the school. There is no legal guarantee that the State curriculum will be neutral and objective and in accordance with human rights law.
Neither the State nor any patron body claims that its patron’s programme is neutral and objective and in line with human rights law (General Comment 22 on Article 18 ICCPR).
State Religious Education Course
At second level the State’s Religious Education course is not a neutral and objective course about religions and beliefs. Denominational schools may also integrate their own patron’s programme into that course and present it as suitable for all children.
Of religion and belief groups, only Christian groups were represented on the committee that developed the course.
Section 15-2(e) of the Education Act 1998 obliges school Boards of Management to respect and promote respect for the diversity of values, beliefs, traditions, languages and ways of life in society. However, there are no statutory guidelines on how schools must protect the rights of minorities in practice.
Louise O’Keeffe case at the European Court
The broader structure of the system was outlined by the European Court of Human Rights in Louise O’Keeffe v Ireland, where the Court held that the State could not avoid its Convention obligations by delegating them to private bodies or individuals.
IHREC has since told the Council of Europe nine times that the State has failed to implement this judgment through a redress scheme.
Also, the State not accepted equivalent responsibility for protecting the freedom of religion or belief of minority families compelled to use publicly funded schools under patron bodies.
Non-discriminatory Exemptions
Article 44.2.4 of the Constitution protects the right of a child to attend a publicly funded school without attending religious instruction:
“Legislation providing State aid for schools shall not discriminate between schools under the management of different religious denominations, nor be such as to affect prejudicially the right of any child to attend a school receiving public money without attending religious instruction at that school.”
Section 30(2)(e) of the Education Act 1998 reflects this principle for all schools:
“the Minister shall not require any student to attend instruction in any subject which is contrary to the conscience of the parent….”
Section 7 of the Intermediate Education (Ireland) Act 1878, states that no funds shall be given to schools if any child attends religious instruction that is against the conscience of the Parent. This only applies to second level schools.
Section 62-7(n) of the Education Admissions to schools Act 2018 requires schools to state in their admissions policies the arrangements for not attending religious instruction. However, there are no Statutory Guidelines to reflects this legislation.
The Minister leaves it up to each school to implement this legislation according to its own ethos. In practice, schools have refused to comply with this law and the State has ignored this issue.
All of this results in the following discriminatory treatment:
- No access to a neutral and objective studying environment.
- No inspection of patron’s religion or ethics programmes.
- Our children are left sitting in the religion class as no supervision is provided.
- No other subject is offered during this time and consequently our children get less teaching time because of our families’ conscientious objections.
- At second level our children receive fewer exam points, as Religion is an exam subject.
- Religion is integrated into the State curriculum.