BERLIN – Leaders in the homeschooling movement from some two dozen countries signed a historic document dubbed the “Berlin Declaration” on November 3, demanding that governments around the world respect families and the fundamental human right to home education while slamming authorities in places like Germany and Sweden that ruthlessly persecute homeschoolers.

The Berlin Declaration, the first of its kind, argues that the right to home educate must be respected by every jurisdiction — after all, no government can legitimately violate the fundamental rights of citizens. Citing multiple human rights documents and a growing body of evidence showing the benefits of homeschooling, the document’s signatories — a surprisingly diverse coalition united by a passion for home education — say the senseless persecution must come to an end.

“It’s an expression of the growing confidence among homeschoolers that this is just another historical struggle for human rights and that we will win,” Swedish Home Education Association (ROHUS) chief and Global Home Education Conference (GHEC) Chairman Jonas Himmelstrand, who fled from Sweden with his family, told The New American. “The Berlin Declaration shows that these rights are already recognized in various human rights conventions; they simply need to be manifested all over the world.”

Assembled in Berlin, Germany, over the weekend for the first Global Home Education Conference, some 200 homeschool leaders, policymakers, experts, parents, and human rights activists have joined forces in the battle to protect and expand educational freedom. With the Berlin Declaration, which outlines various treaties and conventions recognizing the unalienable right to educational freedom, advocates plan to turn the pressure up on certain “rogue” governments.

“We remind all nations that numerous international treaties and declarations recognize the essential, irreplaceable and fundamental role of parents and the family in the education and upbringing of children as a natural right that must be respected and protected by all governments,” the Berlin Declaration explains, citing multiple examples of formal documents in Europe and internationally enshrining parental rights over education.

Even the controversial United Nations, widely perceived among critics as a “dictators club,” has recognized home education as a fundamental human right. In 2007, for example, the UN “Special Rapporteur on Education” officially condemned the German government’s vicious oppression of homeschoolers while stating that home education is an entirely legitimate alternative to state schooling. Multiple binding European human rights treaties are also cited in the Berlin Declaration.

Attorney Michael Donnelly, director of international affairs for the powerful U.S.-based Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) and a member of the GHEC board, said the Berlin Declaration was historic. It will also be a key tool going forward as activists from around the world work to support each other in the struggle for educational freedom everywhere.

“This is the first ever Global Home Education Conference, so it is really unique — it’s the first time that so many references to international treaties and conventions have been referenced in a single document in this home education context,” Donnelly told The New American. “It’s also the first time that so many diverse home educators and activists from around the world and from so many backgrounds have come together to make such a powerful statement. We will not tolerate oppression anywhere.”

Aside from the human rights angle, the document also points to the well-documented success of homeschoolers academically and socially. “We further note that credible and scientific research indicate that home education is an effective means of educating children to become literate and productive citizens and members of civil society and that there is no evidence at all of harm to children or an increased risk of harm on the basis of home education,” it explains, echoing a common theme at the conference supported by experts who spoke out in favor of homeschooling.

Next, the Berlin Declaration condemns the policies of certain national governments that trample on the right to home education, as well as the barbaric persecution employed to enforce the bans: coercive fines, threats to parental custody, and criminal sanctions. While not specifically cited by name, it is hardly a secret that aside from overtly totalitarian regimes such as the one ruling North Korea, the primary culprits in these types of human rights abuses, at least in the Western world, are Sweden and Germany.

As The New American has been reporting for years, the lawless and harsh persecution faced by German and Swedish homeschoolers has led to an exodus of so-called “homeschooling refugees.” Most go to other European nations — virtually all of which permit home education — but some have gone as far as Canada and the United States, where a German family was granted asylum by a federal immigration judge who slammed the barbaric behavior of authorities trying to smash homeschooling families. Himmelstrand, the GHEC chairman, fled from Sweden to the Finnish Aland Islands earlier this year.

Still, the victims seemed optimistic, and the positivity was reflected in the Berlin Declaration. “We now urge all members of the international community to take concrete steps to affirm in their law, policy, and civil and criminal procedures that parents have a natural and fundamental right to direct the education and upbringing of their children which includes the right to choose the type of education their child shall receive including home education,” the document continues, encouraging national governments to consider the growing body of research showing the benefits of home education…

Read more here: http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/europe/item/13507-in-berlin-global-homeschooling-leaders-unveil-historic-declaration

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Needing help for your home schooling journey:

https://hef.org.nz/2011/needing-help-for-your-home-schooling-journey-2/

And

Here are a couple of links to get you started home schooling:

https://hef.org.nz/getting-started-2/

and

https://hef.org.nz/exemptions/

This link is motivational:
https://hef.org.nz/2012/home-schooling-what-is-it-all-about/

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Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill

Make a submission: Reject compulsory Early Education for 3 year olds

by John Jalsevac

DARMSTADT, Germany, October 5, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – A district court in Darmstadt, Germany has revoked custody of four children from their parents and ordered it turned over to the Jugendamt, Germany’s child protective agency.

The reason for the drastic measure? The parents were homeschooling their children.

Dirk Wanderlich, the father of the family, says that while the Jugendamt has issued a letter saying they will allow the children to stay at home for the time being, he believes that in the long run the state intends to remove them.

“[T]hey told me that the children must go to school,” said Dirk, according to the Home School Legal Defense Association, which is providing legal support to the Wanderlichs.

“We are very saddened by the way our country treats us. Our nerves are black and short, and we are very tired by the pressure. I don’t understand my own country. What are we doing wrong? We are just doing what should be allowed to anyone.”

Dirk has good reason to fear that he may eventually lose his children. Homeschooling is illegal in Germany under a law dating back to the Hitler era, and in recent years the country has become increasingly Draconian in enforcing the law – removing children from their families, levying heavy fines, and even sentencing homeschooling parents to jail.

Dirk Wanderlich with his four children.

In one recent case, a family successfully petitioned the United States for political asylum. In his decision granting asylum, U.S. Judge Lawrence Burman said that Germany’s policy of persecuting homeschoolers is “repellent to everything we believe as Americans.”

According to HSLDA, the court who ruled against the Wanderlichs said that the public has, in HSLDA’s words, “an interest in counteracting the development of parallel societies and that religious or ethnic minorities must be ‘integrated’ through schools.”

The ruling aligns with reasons given by Germany’s leadership for maintaining the ban. “In our increasingly multicultural society, school is the place for a peaceful dialogue between different opinions, values, religions and ideologies,” Berlin’s education minister, Juergen Zoellner, told BBC in 2010.

“It is a training ground for social tolerance. Therefore, homeschooling is not an option for Germany.”

Reacting to the Wanderlichs’ case, HSLDA Director for International Relations Michael Donnelly, said, “Homeschooling is a legitimate form of education—Germany’s oppression of people who do it violates their obligation to protect their citizen’s most basic human rights. In the area of educational freedom, Germany is grossly derelict and oppressive.”

The Wanderlichs’ search for the freedom to homeschool has taken them all across Europe. The family already had one major scare in France, when social workers came and seized their children. However, upon appeal their children were returned to them, and their right to homeschool was solidly affirmed.

But while the Wanderlichs ultimately found tolerance in France, Dirk, a gardener, was unable to find steady work and so the family had to move on. Eventually, after stints in Norway and Hungary, the Wanderlichs returned to their native Germany, where they hoped that their homeschooling would simply go unnoticed.

“We hoped we could homeschool without being found out,” says Dirk. “But neighbors turned us in after just a few months. I requested to meet with the school to get them to permit us to homeschool, but they rejected our request for a meeting.”

In the meantime the Wanderlichs are unable even to leave Germany to seek freedom in another country. “We don’t have passports, and even if we did, we could not leave,” Dirk says. “Our children are now under the control of the state. We can’t leave without the state’s permission.”

Desperate and at their wit’s end, the Wanderlichs are reaching out for help.

“I am just one person, and I cannot fight against the power of the state even though I must for my children’s sake,” says Dirk. “We need help from others. I have asked HSLDA to inform the UN special rapporteur on education. We have no choice but to fight, because we feel it is our duty to homeschool our children.”

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