by Rachel Huston, Telegraph
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is considering a case that could revisit a legal principle over whether the state can restrict a parent from involving their child in their religious practice.
According to news site Evangelical Focus the case involves an unnamed Spanish father barred by the courts from taking his young son to church, reading him Bible passages, or otherwise introducing him to the Christian faith, after his ex-partner objected.
The dispute dates to 2022, when the child’s mother asked a court in Alcobendas for sole authority over the boy’s religious upbringing until the age of 12. She argued that the parents had agreed, before separating, not to raise their son in any faith and that the father broke that agreement by taking him to an evangelical church and showing him religious content. The courts sided with the mother, and Madrid’s Provincial Court of Appeal upheld the ruling in 2023.
The father took his case to Spain’s Constitutional Court, arguing the ruling breached his constitutional right to religious freedom and to raise his child according to his convictions.
In May 2025, the court unanimously rejected his appeal. It drew a distinction between practising one’s own faith, which is still protected, and “sharing” that faith with a child against the other parent’s wishes, which it said could be restricted.