Spanish course violates international rights, warns UN consultant

Madrid, Spain, Sep 23, 2010 / 13:53 pm

The director of the European Center for Law and Justice, Gregor Puppinck, told the U.N. Human Rights Commission this week that the school course Education for the Citizenry in Spain violates internationally recognized rights and must be corrected by the Spanish government.

Puppinck noted that the conflict created by Education for the Citizenry has led more than 50,000 parents to file for conscientious objection to exempt their children from the course.

He also noted that many lawsuits filed against the course have been upheld in Spanish courts.

Puppinck said the course poses a problem for freedom of conscience and that it is therefore necessary that the Human Rights Commission insist that the Spanish government take steps to correct the problem.

Leonor Tamayo, the spokesman for Professionals for Ethics, noted that the petition made by Puppinck marks “the first time that the Education for the Citizenry conflict in Spain has been put before a U.N. institution, which means it has unprecedented international repercussions.”

The European Center for Law and Justice, based in Strasbourg, France, is one of the entities representing more than 300 Spanish families in their lawsuit against the Spanish government filed before the European Human Rights Court.