Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee 30 September 2025
Good morning to the panel. Thank you very much for joining us and for your contributions so far.
It is quite clear from what Caitlin Fitzgerald has said and from Rachel Fox’s comments that there is a need to disaggregate RO and RME. We have heard the same from other witnesses this morning, and we will take that into our deliberations.
I have also quite clearly heard frustration—if I can put it like that—that the bill is perhaps a missed opportunity to do something not necessarily grander but much more complete on the rights of the child. I suppose that that is where I want to focus my first question. Articles 12 and 14 of the UNCRC clearly speak of the right to be heard and the freedoms of expression, conscience, thought and religion. The bill is perhaps intended to fulfil some of those rights, although perhaps not in the way that we might wish, with a stand-alone act that would be UNCRC compliant.
A question that was posed back to us earlier this morning was about a balance—or a tension—between the parent’s rights as the primary educator of their children to make those choices for them, and the UNCRC articles that I have mentioned. How do you balance those rights? Angela O’Hagan said that what we are talking about is the child’s right to religious expression, freedom of religion and so on, but do you see a way through any potential conflicts that schools would have to navigate?
Angela, I will come to you first.