German parents jailed for refusing to send children to sex ed

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.

 

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