Do Not Cross the Line: The State Influence on Religious Education

Abstract

The issues related to the role of religion in the public education system have been a public topic for a long time, and related debates have been cyclically revived by specific events. In this contribution, we explore the reasons why Italian grassroots actors do not tend to size up the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) jurisprudence and the plurality of juridical regimes dealing with religion and education as windows of opportunity. First, we analyze the intertwinement of different juridical regimes dealing with religion and education, and the national case law on the topic. Then, drawing on original semi-structured interviews, we analyze the indirect effects of the ECtHR case law on the mobilizations and advocacy strategies at the grassroots level around religion and education. Finally, we discuss the research outcomes, outlining how the non-interference of the Court in state-religions regimes may result in the limited impact and effectiveness of the Court's protection of religious freedoms.

The educational competence of the European Court of Human Rights: judicial pedagogies of religious symbols in classrooms

“…the courts' effectiveness (see also Welner, 2012). For instance, Fokas (2019) recently addressed the indirect effects of the ECtHR's judgements, showing how they become tropes within educational debates and campaigns, either when a particular state has been a party in ECtHR litigation, such as Turkey (Özgül, 2019) or Italy (Giorgi & Annicchino, 2019), or otherwise, e.g. Greece (Markoviti, 2019) and Romania (Popa & Andreescu, 2019).…”

‘Genuine’ religions and their arena of legitimation in Italy – the role of the ECtHR

“…To be recognised as a religion entails economic benefits and facilitates the practice of religious activities, while obtaining an agreement carries a symbolic dimension of 'respectability'. However, the process of recognition is long and complex, involves a certain control by the state for a variable period of time and does not guarantee the enforcement of religious rights, which are often subject to the concurrent competence of different legal regimes, in which the municipal level plays a particularly relevant role (for a discussion, see Giorgi and Annicchino 2017). In this picture, while some religious groups pursue legal recognition, others adopt different strategies in order to be able to practice their religion without being formally recognised as such: in other words, there may be situations in which religious rights are better -or more easily -enjoyed without being formally recognised.…”