Schoolchildren’s Right to Education and Freedom of Religion in the Case Law of the ECtHR: Comments on Papageorgiou v Greece

Abstract

Abstract The article deals with the schoolchildren’s right to education and freedom of religion in the case law of the ECtHR, with a special focus on the case Papageorgiou v Greece adopted in October 2019. In the case at hand, the applicants challenged the content of the religious courses in Greece as well as the opt-out procedure offered for parents who did not wish their children to participate in the religious course. The Court concluded that the exemption procedure violated Art 2 of Protocol 1 of the ECHR. After examining previous case law of the ECtHR on similar cases, the article focuses on the most striking parts of the Court’s judgment in Papageorgiou. In particular, the ECtHR only considered the exemption procedure from the courses offered, and made no reference to, or examination of, the courses themselves. In addition, the perspective related to the right to private life is also missing. The article concludes by commenting that the Court’s judgment had already had an impact on the case law of the Greek Supreme Administrative Court.