Jonas and Tamara Himmelstrand with their son Jakob.

We have received an email from Jonas Himmelstrand, President-in-exile of the Swedish Association of Home Education, about "the world's first global home education conference", which will take place on November 1-4 in Berlin, Germany.

Mr Himmelstrand and his family left Sweden in February and went to live on the Finnish Aland Islands after three years of being persecuted by the Swedish government for educating their children at home instead of sending them to school. He is also a critic of Swedish family policies. He writes:

The intention of the GHEC2012 conference is to put home eduation on the global agenda as one form of basic education in the pluralistic knowledge era. Home education is the fastest growing form of basic education today, and is winning more and more acceptance around the world as academically and socially successful. Home education is also a leading current human rights theme today on parents prior right to choose the form of education for their children. The time has come to acknowledge home education on a global level.

At the GHEC2012 some of the world's foremost experts on home education in the areas of justice, research and policy making present in keynotes and workshops together with home educating parents from all over the world.

We are inviting parents, policy makers, home educators, researchers, journalists and everyone else interested in perhaps the most innovative social movement today in the democratic world.

The GHEC2012 is arranged by a consortium of people and organisations from home education organisations from all over the world. The GHEC board has ten members from South Korea, The Philippines, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, Germany, Canada, USA and Mexico.

Website for the conference: http://www.ghec2012.org