Roma rejoice as Czech Republic found guilty of discrimination

Nov 14, 2007, 16:38 GMT

Prague - The parents of the 18 Roma children, who won a lengthy legal battle with the Czech Republic over their schooling, rejoiced Wednesday at what Roma activists see as a landmark verdict.

'The parents are very happy about it. They are very thrilled,' Kumar Vishwanathan, an activist working with the Czech Roma, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. 'They are happy to see that the highest European court said that segregation is wrong.'

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights ruled in Strasbourg Tuesday that the Czech Republic discriminated against 18 Czech Roma children for placing them in schools for mentally disabled.

The court noted in the verdict that the Roma children were 'over- represented' at these schools, from which it is nearly impossible to proceed to a secondary school.

Roma activists have estimated that a Roma child is 27 times more likely to end up in such school.

'The court said that if addressing special needs leads to segregation, it is discrimination' even if the state did not intend to segregate, Vishwanathan said, adding that the Tuesday verdict is thus 'a landmark decision not just for the Roma but for many minorities across Europe.'

The court also found the country guilty of denying the children their right to education and ruled that the Czech Republic must pay each plaintiff 4,000 euros in compensation and 10,000 euros in court expenses.

Four of the 17 judges deciding the case opposed the verdict, including the judge from the Czech Republic, CTK news agency reported.

Czech authorities placed the 18 Roma children from the north-eastern city of Ostrava to the then so-called 'special schools' during the 1990s.

Since they filed their law suit against the Czech Republic in 1999, the country has adopted a new school law and overhauled the special schools originally designed for the mentally disabled.

But activists say Roma children are still segregated today. 'Nothing has changed really,' Vishwanathan said. 'Only the (school) signs have been repainted.'