The Struggle for the Right to Education in the European Convention on Human Rights

Abstract

This paper addresses two central questions, namely, on what grounds the right to education is justified in the European Convention on Human Rights, and in what terms we can understand the tensions between the right of a child, as a social right, and the right of a parent, as a civil right. I argue that two main reasons served as grounds for a universal right of education; one being the social right of children to free education and the other being to secure an education that was not indoctrinating. In the preparatory work of the article on the right to education the main contests were about who was to protect the child from indoctrination, the state or the parents. I suggest that the contest was not really about education but about the relation between the state and religion, or where to draw the line between the public and the private.

Ninni Wahlström is a senior lecturer and assistant professor in the Department of Education, Örebro University, SE-701 82 Örebro, Sweden. Her areas of interest include philosophy of education, curriculum research, and educational policy. She has recently had a chapter published in Utbildning som kommunikation [Education as communication], edited by Tomas Englund, and two chapters in Vadå likvärdighet?[What about equivalence?], edited by Tomas Englund and Ann Quennerstedt. Other articles have been accepted for publication in the journals Educational Philosophy and Theory and Journal of Curriculum Studies.

Notes

1. The European Movement dates back to July 1947. The International Committee of the Movements for European Unity arranged a Congress in The Hague, from May 7–11, 1948, with 800 delegates from around Europe, and presided over by Winston Churchill. The Hague Congress submitted three resolutions: a cultural resolution, an economical and social resolution, and a political resolution. The European Movement was formally founded in May 1948, and its first effort was the establishing of the Council of Europe in May 1949. Available: http://www.europeanmovement.org/history.cfm [16 May 2007].

2. Collected Edition of the “Travaux Préparatoires” consists of eight volumes and contains the various documents used during the drafting of the Convention and the First Protocol. The documents are mainly reports of discussions in the Assembly, the Committee on Legal and Administrative Questions and the Committee of Ministers. The material contained in Collected Edition of the “Travaux Préparatoires” was published during the years 1961–1964 in a confidential edition, which was only for the use of governments, the Commission and the Court. A. H. Robertson asked the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe for authorization to publish the collection. Authorization was given in September 1972 and the first volume was published in 1975 (Robertson 1975).

3. The Ministers of Belgium, Denmark, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, the Saar Government, Turkey, and the United Kingdom signed the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in the Barberini Palace in Rome on November 4. Sweden and Greece signed the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in Paris on November 28 in the same year, which brought the number of signatories to 15 (Weil 1963b: 35).

4. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (UN 1966) does not include any article about the right of property, though it is stated in the Declaration of Universal Rights, 1948 (Danelius 1993: 45).

5. Kjeldsen, Busk Madsen and Pedersen vs. Denmark, Eur. Ct.H.R.1976-12-07. [Online]. Available: http://echr.coe.int/echr/en/hudoc [17 May 2007]