FRANCE:The practice in the Czech Republic of sending most Roma children to special schools for children with learning difficulties has been found to contravene the European Convention on Human Rights.
In a judgment made by the full 17-member grand chamber of judges, by a majority of 13 votes to four, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg found that the fact the vast majority of Roma children were in such special schools amounted to indirect discrimination. This violated Article 14 of the convention, which prohibits discrimination.
The case was taken by 18 Czech nationals of Roma origin, who were placed in a special school for children with learning difficulties between 1996 and 1999.
Under the law, the decision to place a child in such a school was taken by a head teacher on the basis of tests to which the child's legal representative must consent. The applicants challenged this in the Czech Constitutional Court in 1999 and lost.
The case then went to the European Court of Human Rights in 2000, and a seven-judge chamber found there had been no discrimination.
It found that the Czech government had set up the special schools for all children with learning difficulties, that having such schools was not in itself discriminatory, and that the children were not explicitly referred to them on the basis of their ethnicity. The applicants then asked that the case be referred to the grand chamber.
Various non-governmental organisations associated with education, human rights and disability rights made submissions, and a full hearing took place in January this year.
The grand chamber found that as a result of their turbulent history and constant uprooting, the Roma were a specific type of disadvantaged and vulnerable minority, requiring special protection. It noted statistical information showing that the majority of children in the special schools, and up to 90 per cent in some, were Roma.
This was enough to suggest that there was a presumption of indirect discrimination, and the burden of proof shifted to the Government to prove there was none.
It found that there was a danger the tests were biased, and was not satisfied that the difference in treatment between Roma and non-Roma children was objectively justified.
It also noted that the special schools had been abolished since the case was taken.