The Principle of Secularism and the Right to Religious Education

European standards vs. the case of the Republic of Macedonia

Abstract

Recently, several debates on secularism in politics and legal
theory have infected the constitutional law and the comparative
constitutionalism. With regard to the constitutional status of
secularism, we can discern three distinct positions all of which agree
that in most liberal democracies secularism is not explicitly
recognized in the constitutions or in the jurisprudence. They also
agree that the position of secularism among the constitutional values is
specific - either it is not clear to which established constitutional
category secularism belongs, or what is the underlying value behind it.
This paper aims to analyze the European standards and
experiences related to the principle of secularism. It concerns few
European countries where religious education is taught in public
schools, as well as the standards deriving from the European and
international documents referring to the human rights in this field.
This paper takes into consideration the mandatory documents, as well
as the documents qualified as recommendations. It analyses both the
constitutional and the legal foundations of secularism and religious
education in the Republic of Macedonia in the context of the decisions
of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Macedonia which
cancelled the religious education in the country.