Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion and Other Human Rights in Irish Schools: Between Theory and Practice, Exemplary Approaches and Internal Contradictions

Human rights education has yet to be mainstreamed in most European countries, even when it features in curricula. The Irish state is no exception. Late 1990s curricular changes were a turning point, with young people now being expected to explore and question unequal structures and relations through various subjects and projects. While these new approaches have marked a departure from past policy and practice, human rights as such do not feature prominently in the (still current) 1999 primary curriculum. By contrast, the 1997 civic, social and political education curriculum is explicitly human rights-based and may be deemed exemplary by international standards, even if its latest adaptations in 2016-2021 have been found somewhat less ambitious. The development of human rights education has been constrained by a number of obstacles. The persistence of a still largely denominational and structurally discriminatory school system may be considered to hold a prominent place among these.