Lawyers representing parents in Germany currently in jail for
refusing to send their children to compulsory sex education classes have
sent letters to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) asking them
to review appeals filed last year speedily.
One of the fathers is currently serving his second prison term.
The lawyers, who are being paid for by the Alliance Defence Fund
(ADF), a group that helps to pay for the legal costs of people who are
prosecuted for their religious beliefs, have requested that the ECHR
uphold national and international law against the German government’s
imprisonment of the parents.
Arthur and Anna Wiens, along with Eduard and Rita Wiens, chose to
keep their four children, a nine-and 10-year-old from each family, from
attending a compulsory play and four school days of sexual education,
which contradicted their religious beliefs.
The couples were
subsequently fined and sentenced to prison after they refused to pay.
Arthur Wiens served two jail terms totalling 10 days last year.
Eduard Wiens served five days last year and is now serving a 40-day
sentence that will end April 23.
Anna Wiens’ and Rita Wiens’ 43-day
sentences were postponed, due to the former’s pregnancy and the latter’s
nursing of her newborn.
“Parents, not the government, are ultimately responsible for making
educational choices for their children, and jailing them for exercising
this universal right is ridiculous,” said ADF Legal Counsel Roger Kiska.
“Eduard Wiens was well within his rights under the European
Convention of Human Rights to opt to teach his children a view of
sexuality that is in accord with his own religious beliefs, instead of
sending them to classes and an interactive play that they found to be
objectionable,” Mr Kiska said.
In June 2006, the four parents, active members of the Christian
Baptist Church, objected to their children’s attendance at both a
compulsory stage play and four school days of sexual education classes.
They believed the courses contradicted their sincerely held religious
beliefs.
The Wiens’ kept their children at home during the programs and
instead instructed them in their own Christian values on sexuality.
The parents were subsequently sentenced by a lower court in June 2008
and each was fined a total of €2,340, which they refused to pay on
legal and moral grounds.
School officials claim that the play “Mein Köper Gehört Mir” (My Body
Is Mine) is designed to help sexual abuse amongst children.
However,
the parents say that the classes teach children to become sexually
active, ultimately teaching that if something feels good sexually, then
it is an acceptable practice.
The ADF has three similar cases before the ECHR, involving the
imprisonment of six other Christian parents.
ADF attorneys argue in
their applications of appeal filed with the European Court of Human
Rights in Wiens v. Germany that the state violated the Wiens’ parental
rights under Protocol 1, Article 2 of the European Convention of Human
Rights, Articles 4 and 6 of the Grundgesetz, German basic law, and other
binding international treaties.