Europe: European Court declares ‘Racial Discrimination in Czech Schools’

Strasbourg, 14 November 2007 ? Europe?s highest court find racial discrimination in Czech Schools.

Eighteen children, represented by the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), have sought legal redress for the practice?widespread in Central and Eastern Europe – of shunting Roma students into "special" schools for children with learning disabilities regardless of their actual intellectual abilities.

Finally, after an eight-years battle, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, by a vote of 13 to four, ruled that segregating Roma students into special schools is a form of unlawful discrimination that violates fundamental human rights.

The Court found that the practice of racial segregation in education violated Article 14 of the European Convention of Human Rights, which prohibits discrimination, taken together with Article 2 of Protocol 1, which secures the right to education. The Court noted that the Czech Republic is not alone in this practice and that discriminatory barriers to education for Roma children are present in a number of European countries.

"The court has made clear that racial discrimination has no place in 21st century Europe," said James A. Goldston, counsel for the plaintiffs and executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative. "Roma children must have the same access to quality education as everyone else."

Research by ERRC showed that Roma students were 27 times more likely than similarly situated non-Roma to be placed in special schools, that tests used to assess the children's mental ability were culturally biased against Czech Roma, and placement procedures allowed for the influence of racial prejudice on the part of educational authorities.

The ERRC report describes the most common practices of segregating Romani children in education based on their ethnicity which includes: segregation in so-called "special schools" for children with developmental disabilities, segregation in Romani ghetto schools, segregation in all-Romani classes, denial of Romani enrolment in mainstream schools, as well as other phenomena. In each case the quality of education provided to Roma is invariably inferior to the mainstream educational standards.

"We look forward to working with the Czech authorities and those of other countries to guarantee that this decision leads to better education opportunities for all children," said Vera Egenberger, executive director of the ERRC, which supported the plaintiffs in the case.

Despite of this victory racial segregation in education remains widespread throughout the Czech Republic and in neighbouring countries.

NOTES:
The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) is an international public interest law organisation engaging in a range of activities aimed at combating anti-Romani racism and human rights abuse of Roma.

The Open Society Justice Initiative is an operational program led by Open Society Institute (OSI), which pursues law reform activities grounded in the protection of human rights, and contributes to the development of legal capacity for open societies worldwide.

www.errc.org
www.justiceinitiative.org