A reconstruction of the international standards of religious education of juveniles in correctional institutions

ABSTRACT

In this article, we reconstruct the international standards relating to the religious education of a juvenile placed in an isolation centre in connection with the commission of a prohibited act. From a human rights perspective, this is a particularly complicated situation because there is a competition between parties that (at least potentially) have the right to decide on such education. These parties include: juveniles, their parent(s) or legal guardians and the authorities of an isolation centre. The rights of each of them are governed by various legal acts of a different rank – both in an international and national order. An analysis of international documents made it possible to assess the legal situation within the scope defined in the title and formulate certain postulates.

KEYWORDS:

• Rights of the child
• juvenile’s rights
• freedom of religion
• religious education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Narodowe Centrum Nauki [2018/31/B/HS5/02233]

Notes on contributors

Olga Sitarz

Olga Sitarz is an associate professor at the University of Silesia in Katowice (Poland), and a specialist in criminal law, criminology and penal enforcement law. She is a former judge of the District Court in Katowice, an active mediator at the Silesian Centre for Arbitration and Mediation and the head of the research project: ‘The standards of respect the religious rights of persons detained in prisons, detention centers, educational and correctional centers for juveniles’, financed by the National Science Centre (Poland). Her areas of interest include ageing, violence prevention, human rights in the perspective of criminal law, restorative justice, feminist analyses of law and gender.

Anna Jaworska-Wieloch

Anna Jaworska-Wieloch PhD is an assistant professor at the University of Silesia in Katowice (Poland), and a specialist in criminal law and penal enforcement law. She was a social probation officer in criminal cases and currently she is a judge of the District Court in Gliwice (Poland). Her doctoral dissertation is a dogmatic and empirical study of the reasons for the revocation of conditional release in Poland (2016).

Jakub Hanc

Jakub Hanc is a PhD student at the Doctoral School University of Silesia in Katowice (Poland). The focus of his research is criminal law and its history as well as medical law.