Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Michael Farris:
Over the past year, I have spoken many times about international law and the modern courts’ tendency to apply international law to domestic cases. For some time, I have believed that international law would eventually conclude that the right to homeschool is unprotected.

On September 12, 2006, the European Court of Human Rights rendered a decision in the case of Konrad v. Germany that issued a clear warning of the threat international law presents for homeschooling. The court affirmed the power of the German government to ban home education. Parents who claimed that both parental rights and religious freedom protected homeschooling were rebuffed by the court in a shocking assertion of raw governmental power to indoctrinate children. As a basis for its ruling, the court stated that the ban on homeschooling was necessary for the promotion of pluralism in the country.

Germany, along with other European nations, has explicitly provided for the protection of rights by signing the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. However, the European court declared that the aim of the convention includes “safeguarding pluralism in education,” and according to the court, the state is the primary vehicle for promoting pluralism. In other words, if the state must trample on individual rights in pursuit of what it defines as pluralism, citizens have no grounds on which to object.

According to this explanation of the European court, human rights are meaningless. As Americans, we must take note of the enormous implication this decision holds for our freedom to homeschool. I’m Mike Farris.