Human rights in relation to education about religions and world views : the contribution of the Council of Europe to classroom religious education

The article considers human rights and their relevance to an impartial and inclusive form of religious and world views education. Such a form of education is justified because of its intrinsic worth as part of a liberal education, and its instrumental value to the personal development of students and to their social development as members of societies in which people need to live together, despite holding different religious and secular beliefs. It is argued that the human rights codes are especially relevant to the argument for inclusive religious education related to the social development of young people. The Council of Europe’s work in this field since 2002 is summarised, including its publication of Signposts (Jackson in Signposts: policy and practice for teaching about religions and non-religious world views in intercultural education, Council of Europe Publishing, Strasbourg, http://www.theewc.org/Content/Library/COE-Steering-documents/Recommendations/Signposts-Policy-and-practice-for-teaching-about-religions-and-non-religious-world-views-in-intercultural-education, 2014). Its impartial (secular but not normatively secularist) approach sees the human rights codes as vital reference points for discussions about the limits of individual freedoms, including ‘freedom of religion or belief’, supports forms of ‘education about religions and beliefs’ which combine impartial study with opportunities for student dialogue and exchange, and regards such education as complementary to forms of faith nurture within families and communities