Strasbourg (France), 27th May 2024

In this symposium at the Council of Europe, participants discussed the role of NGOs in the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, UNESCO in Paris, the European Union in Brussels, and the UN in Geneva, all through the lens of the principle of subsidiarity. OIDEL was invited to speak on Freedom of Education in Europe.

Josyane Zingg of OIDEL first laid out the basis for Freedom of Education in International Human Rights law, focusing on the rights granted to parents and non-governmental bodies and the role of governments in protecting those rights. Concretely, States are obliged to put in place a framework in which individuals and moral persons can establish and direct schools, other than those established by the State and in which parents have the right to choose the education that is given to their children (ICESCR, Art. 13). That’s the theory. But what does reality look like? Drawing from the recent OIDEL research project “Freedom of Education Index 2023”, Ms. Zingg pointed out that Freedom of Education in Europe is in a better place than in most other regions of the world. However, this freedom is far from being fully granted in most European countries. Good examples from Europe include the Netherlands and Belgium where the State fully finances non-governmental schools, including teacher salaries, maintenance costs, and investments. Consequently, parents do not have to cover their children’s school fees, which allows them to freely choose their children’s education independently of their economic background.

This symposium followed two others organized at the Council of Europe by the same NGOs: “Citizenship, Education, Spirituality” on 03/12/2013 and “Intercultural Dialogue, Learning about Citizenship and Democracy – Practices in Catholic Schools” on January 17, 2019. In the coming months, a book will be published gathering all interventions of the three Symposiums. We will disseminate the book via our newsletter.