Right to religious freedom CHILDREN PARTICIPATING IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION In Austria, parents may withdraw their children from religious instruction classes, for example, if the children’s religion is not Roman Catholic or if the parents do not have a religious affiliation. The father of a Russian Orthodox child withdrew his child from religious instruction classes, without, however, officially leaving the Church. After some time, he found out that the child was actually participating in Catholic religious instruction. Thus was justified by the school with technical considerations relative to child care. When the father put forth his intention of lodging a complaint with the AOB, the child was suddenly cared for otherwise after all. As a result, the AOB conducted an ex-officio investigative proceeding. Apparently the originally selected course of action by the school in question was based on an old directive. According to this directive, there are no reservations against the mere physical presence of a student in a religious instruction class that is due to supervisory duties if the school’s supervisory duties cannot be met in any other way. As the initial reaction of the school in question shows, this provision seems to be somewhat broadly interpreted in some schools. School has super- Therefore, it is probably not a rare occurrence for children belonging to religions other than Roman Catholicism or children without a religious affiliation to de facto actually be obliged to participate in religious instruction classes. This contradicts the intention of some parents who find it important for their child not to come into contact with certain religious content. These problems are not limited to participation in Catholic religious instruction, but also to classes that are dedicated to other religions. However, due to the presumed frequency, the ex-officio investigative proceeding concentrated on Catholic religious instruction. AOB initiates ex- visory duties officio investigative proceeding 37