Legal summary

January 2023

M.C.K. and M.H.K.-B. and Others v. Germany (communicated case) - 26657/22

Article 2 of Protocol No. 1

Right to education

Covid-19 related restrictions on and prohibition of in-class school lessons: communicated

Article 8

Article 8-1

Respect for family life

Respect for private life

Covid-19 related restrictions on and prohibition of in-class school lessons: communicated

The applications concern Covid-19 related restrictions on and prohibition of in-class lessons (also globally referred to as school closures ) under Section 28b § 3 of the German Protection Against Infection Act (the “IfSG”).

In particular, the impugned provision prescribed, depending on the rate of new Covid-19 infections calculated on the basis of the previous seven days (so-called seven-day incident rate) in the district concerned on three consecutive days, for general education and vocational schools

- a hybrid learning requirement with school classes divided into different groups alternating between in-class lessons at school and remote learning from home or

- a complete ban on in-class lessons.

The applicants are pupils from various districts in Germany and attended schools which had been closed several times during the Covid-19 pandemic before and which were again subject to school closures by virtue of the impugned provision since 23 April 2021 for different periods of time.

They complain that the school closures negatively affected their personal and social development as well as their mental health and respectively reduced their knowledge with effects on their future careers and income.

On 19 November 2021 the Federal Constitutional Court dismissed the applicants’ constitutional complaints.

Communicated under Article 2 of Protocol No.1 and Article 8 of the Convention.

(See the summary of the leading order of the Federal Constitutional Court on the Federal pandemic emergency brake II (school closures) , 1 BvR 971/ 21 and 1 BvR 1069/ 21 , provided by the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission))

© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.

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