Panel: ENTER-EXIT: EXPLORING THE SOCIAL AND LEGAL FRAMEWORKS OF RELIGIOUS TRANSITIONS



467.5 - CHANGING RELIGION AND CHILDREN'S RIGHTS

AUTHORS:
Viani A. (Sapienza Università di Roma ~ Roma ~ Italy)
Text:
The right to freedom of religion under supranational human rights instruments includes the freedom to change religion. According to Article 14 of the CRC, this fundamental right must also be guaranteed to children. Therefore, every child deserves the freedom to think freely and to embrace his or her beliefs, even changing them over time, but this freedom must be harmonized with the rights and duties of parents to provide guidance to the child in exercising his or her rights in a manner consistent with his or her developmental capacities. This opens the way to some debated issues. Indeed, there is no doubt that it is the child who exercises freedom of religion, not the parent, as well as the fact that as the child's abilities evolve, the parents' role of providing guidance diminishes and the child obtains an increasingly active role in making his or her own choices. However, decisions about children's religion are usually made by their parents at birth or at an early age, based on their own religious affiliation, and as they grow up, the educational role and influence of parents often constitute an obstacle to the effective exercise of children's right to freely choose their own religion, or to change the one imposed by the family. How can respect for parents' religious beliefs be balanced with the exercise of the child's right to religious self-determination? What happens when this right conflicts with the parents' educational project? Through the analysis of some practical issues that might lead children to want to abandon or change their religion before the age of consent, such as freedom of marriage (especially with reference to the question of forced marriages), health treatments, sexual activity, forced display of religious symbols and clothing, etc., the paper aims to try to answer these questions, highlighting the difficulties in the exercise of children's right to change religion and the possible consequences of this will in the family context.