The BHA has submitted formal evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) on the government’s forthcoming Education and Children Bill. The submission concluded that some proposed provisions could seriously threaten human rights, while the inclusion of others could significantly enhance protection against discrimination.
The Bill will not be published until November but the JCHR invited submissions from interested groups on the significant human rights issues it is likely to raise. In its evidence the BHA warned that the government’s stated aim of making it easier to establish ‘faith’ schools, which can discriminate widely religious grounds, would infringe the rights of many thousands of pupils and staff. The scaling back of Ofsted’s role, and particularly its duty to assess schools’ contribution to community cohesion, was also highlighted as a cause for concern.
The BHA noted that as well as posing serious threats to human rights, the Bill also presents an opportunity to enhance protection against discrimination. The BHA recommended scrapping the law that forces schools to hold a daily act of collective worship and introducing an objective, impartial national syllabus for religious education and sex and relationships education.
BHA faith schools and education campaigns officer James Gray said ‘Our analysis confirms that the forthcoming education bill poses a significant threat to human rights. In particular, the government’s intention to make it easier to set up highly-discriminatory ‘faith’ schools risks violating the freedom of belief of thousands more children, parents and staff.’
‘However, if the political will is there the Bill could actually be used to enhance human rights, by scrapping compulsory collective worship and introducing an entitlement to impartial teaching on religion and belief and sex and relationships. The government has a very clear choice – it can use this Bill to increase discrimination or introduce greater protections against it. We look forward to reading the Bill when it is published next month and submitting a more detailed response to the Committee.’
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For further information contact James Gray on 020 7462 4993 or james@humanists.uk.
Read the BHA’s written evidence to the JCHR inquiry.
The British Humanist Association (BHA) is the national charity representing and supporting the non-religious and campaigning for an end to religious privilege and discrimination based on religion or belief.
The Joint Committee on Human Rights consists of twelve members appointed from both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The Committee is charged with considering human rights issues in the UK.