A.R. and L.R. v. Switzerland (dec.)

Information Note on the Court’s case-law 214 January 2018 A.R. and L.R. v. Switzerland (dec.) - 22338/15 Decision 19.12.2017 [Section III] Article 8 Article 8-1 Respect for family life Respect for private life Compulsory sex education in public schools for four to eight-year-olds: inadmissible Article 9 Article 9-1 Freedom of conscience Facts – In 2011 the first applicant and her seven-year-old daughter unsuccessfully submitted a request for the girl to be exempted from “sex education classes” in the second year of primary school. The classes were mandatory for children of between 4 and 8 under a directive of the Cantonal Education Department. The two applicants appealed to the Federal Court, which dismissed their appeal on the merits, while finding that Articles 8 and 9 of the Convention were applicable. The first applicant argued that the sex education was premature and that its mandatory nature interfered with the parents’ role in educating their children. Law Article 8: The Court had never expressly found that Article 8 § 1 applied to the parents’ right to provide for their children’s education, which was mainly protected by Article 2 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention (a Protocol not ratified by Switzerland), the lex specialis in such matters. It had always confined itself to interpreting Article 2 § 1 of that Protocol in the light of Articles 8 to 10 of the Convention. This did not necessarily mean, however, that Article 8 § 1 could not be...