Children should choose their religion

The Pirate Party (‘Píratar’) has submitted a parliamentary bill proposing amendments to current legislation on registered religious and philosophical organisations. These amendments include a halt to the practice of children being automatically registered in religious organisations, allowing them instead to register themselves when they reach the age of thirteen.

The explanatory note to the bill sets out two amendments to Act No 108/1999 on registered religious and philosophical organisations: “Firstly, we propose that children should be able to decide on their membership of a registered religious and philosophical organisation themselves at the age of thirteen, rather than sixteen. Secondly, we propose that the legal requirement for automatic registration of new-born children in religious and philosophical organisations should be abolished.”

The full text of the bill (in Icelandic) can be found here.