Policy Brief No. 4. SOGI Content in Compulsory Education: Parental Rights, Pluralism and the Limits of State Power in Europe

• Pages: 33-39
• Author: Francisca Pérez-Madrid

TARGET AUDIENCE

Policymakers and technical sta of education ministries and regional education authorities in EU

Member States; legislators; legal practitioners; professionals in international organisations working

in the elds of education, human rights and religious diversity management.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Across Europe, the integration of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) content into com-

pulsory education curricula has accelerated since 2020. These reforms pursue legitimate goals of

equality and non-discrimination, but have in many cases been implemented without clear pluralism

standards, structured parental participation mechanisms, or age-dierentiated safeguards. Parental

rights — among the most robust guarantees in international human rights law — risk being reduced

to a formal tolerance rather than an eective structural guarantee of democratic pluralism.

The European Court of Human Rights has consistently held that educational content touching on

children’s moral and philosophical formation must be transmitted in an objective, critical and plura-

listic manner. The Venice Commission (2021) has extended this standard explicitly to SOGI content.

These requirements bind all Council of Europe member states. Most European legal systems, which

operate under models of cooperation between the state and religious communities rather than strict

separation, provide a particularly strong normative basis for parental rights in education.

This document sets out ve prioritised recommendations enabling education authorities to pursue

equality and inclusion goals while genuinely respecting pluralism of convictions.

KEY POLICY QUESTION

How can European education systems promote equality and non-discrimination with regard to se-

xual orientation and gender identity, while respecting parents’ right to guide their children’s moral

and philosophical upbringing in accordance with their convictions?

33

GENDER EQUALITY AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN THE 2030 AGENDA:

TEN POLICY BRIEFS

Francisca Pérez-Madrid (coord.)

Dykinson, Madrid, 2026

POLICY BRIEF

SOGI CONTENT IN COMPULSORY EDUCATION:

PARENTAL RIGHTS, PLURALISM AND THE LIMITS OF STATE POWER IN EUROPE

Francisca Pérez-Madrid

Full Professor of Law, Universitat de Barcelona

1

THE POLICY

PROBLEM

The integration of SOGI content into compulsory education generates genuine ten-

sions between states’ equality and inclusion objectives and parental rights to guide the

moral and philosophical formation of their children. The problem does not lie in the

legitimacy of anti-discrimination goals, but in the constitutional limits on state inter-

vention where it is conducted without adequate recognition of parental rights.

Across European states, this tension has been sharpened by three concurrent deve-

lopments:

u SOGI content has been incorporated transversally across curricula rather than as

a discrete subject, making opt-out mechanisms structurally more dicult to exercise.