Children's Right to Religion and Religious Education

Abstract

This chapter addresses the question of why religion and religious education should be included with early childhood education. The author argues that access to religious education must be seen as a human right, specifically connected to the rights of children. The United Nations’ 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child offers a starting point for such an entitlement in respect to education, although the Convention is not as clear in this respect as it should be. Additional arguments can be gained from children’s freedom of religion which is also guaranteed by the Convention. Yet it remains important to also view children’s right to religion in an educational perspective, for example, following the model of Ellen Key or Janusz Korczak as early twentieth century pioneers in the field of children’s rights. Because of this, the chapter describes educational reasons for the inclusion of religion with early childhood education as well, thus adding plausibility to the legal perspective. In addition to this, the question is asked what kind of religious education will in fact do justice to children’s rights in general and how religious education is even possible given the increasingly multi-cultural and multi-religious situation in institutions of early childhood education and without infringing the rights of children and parents who are not interested in religion and religious education.