Norway: European Human Rights Court rules against mandatory religious classes Finally, Norway has to withdraw compulsory religious classes in public schools. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled on 27 June 2007 that the so-called KRL classes (Christian, religious and life stance education”) violated Article 2 of the European Human Rights convention. Education Minister Øystein Djupedal announced that necessary changes were being prepared. The ruling ends ten years of legal battle. In 1997, when compulsory religious education in the lines of the "State's official religion" for all students of primary and secondary schools was reestablished in Norway, seven families decided to sue the state as their children were forced to participate against their wishes in religious classes and there was no way to exempt them. They lost their case at the local, appeals and Supreme Court levels, but four of them did not stop there and appealed in Strasbourg in 2002. “We did not think that our boys would be old enough to drink champagne by the time this case was decided!” exclaimed one of the plaintiffs, whose son had been a 10-years-old boy back in 1997, whom she wanted to spare religious indoctrination. There is no separation of church and state in Norway. Schools are bound by the General Christian-aim clause and the powerful Evangelical Lutheran State Church has a dominant position in the curriculum. Therefore it was difficult to accommodate minority groups with other religious rights by only offering Christian KRL classes, noted the court. Norway stands accused of yet another violation of Human Rights due to State Church privileges enshrined in its Constitution. The Norwegian Constitution demands that any elected government has to present a cabinet with 50 % of the ministers being members of the State Church. This is violating both the United Nations Convention on Civil and Political Rights and the European Council's Human Rights Convention. |