Published on 30 May 2023

THIRD SECTION

Application no. 62525/19 Charilaos CHRISTOU and Others against Greece lodged on 23 December 2019 communicated on 10 May 2023

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The application concerns the obligation of the first and third applicants to submit a solemn declaration declaring that their son, the second applicant, was not Orthodox Christian, in order for the latter to be exempted from the religious education course. The declaration originally submitted referred to the second applicant’s conscientious reasons in order to get the exemption, but it was rejected as it did not include that the applicant was not Orthodox Christian. At the time though, the Data Protection Authority had issued decision no. 28/2019 criticising the relevant requirement and the Supreme Administrative Court had issued decision no. 1479/2019 stating that the reference to conscientious reasons was sufficient.

The applicants submitted a new declaration in which it was stated that the applicant was not Orthodox Christian in order to get the exemption from the religious education course; nevertheless, it was rejected as having been submitted out of the time-limit and the applicant was forced to follow the religious education course for school year 2019-2020.

QUESTION TO THE PARTIES

Has there been a breach of the first and third applicants’ right under Article 2 of Protocol No. 1, interpreted in the light of Article 9 of the Convention, to have their child educated in conformity with their religious and philosophical convictions having regard to: a) the requirement for the applicants to submit a declaration declaring that the applicant was not orthodox Christian in order for the second applicant to get exempted from the religious education course; b) the fact that the second applicant was forced to follow the religious education course after his declaration was rejected twice (see Papageorgiou and Others v. Greece , nos. 4762/18 and 6140/18, 31 October 2019)?

APPENDIX

List of applicants:

Application no. 62525/19

No.

Applicant’s Name

Year of birth

Nationality

Place of residence

1.Charilaos CHRISTOU

1968Greek

Athens

2.Dimitrios CHRISTOU

2004Greek

Athens

3.Stavroula ZISI

1976Greek

Athens