[WCAR] European Court of Human Rights to hear Roma school segregation complaint

Strasbourg Judges Agree to Review European Roma Rights Centre Action to
Challenge Racial Exclusion in the Czech School System

May 17, 2005, Strasbourg. Five years after the application was filed, the
European Court of Human Rights has agreed to hear the case of "D.H. and
Others v. the Czech Republic" - a landmark case involving racial
segregation in Czech schools. This is the first significant challenge to
systemic discriminatory education of Romani children to come before the
Court. The decision moves the litigation to its central stage:
consideration on the merits of whether assignment of disproportionate
numbers of Romani children to substandard, separate schools constitutes
racial discrimination in breach of the European Convention of Human
Rights.

The case concerns eighteen children represented by the ERRC and local
counsel. The applicants allege that their assignment to "special schools"
for the mentally disabled contravened human rights law and was tainted by
racial animus. Tests used to assess the childrens mental ability were
culturally biased against Czech Roma, and placement procedures allowed for
the influence of racial prejudice on the part of educational authorities.

Evidence before the Court based on ERRC research in the city of Ostrava
demonstrates that school selection processes do frequently discriminate on
the basis of race:

* Over half of the Romani child population is schooled in remedial
special schools;
* Over half of the population of remedial special schools is Romani;
* Any randomly chosen Romani child is more than 27 times more likely
to be
placed in schools for the mentally disabled than a similarly situated
non-Romani child.
* Even where Romani children manage to avoid the trap of placement in
remedial special schooling, they are most often schooled in
substandard and predominantly Romani urban ghetto schools.

Once these children have been streamed into substandard education, they
have little chance of accessing higher education or steady employment
opportunities.

The applicants raised several arguments grounded in different provisions
of the European Convention. Thus, they argued that the assignment to
special schools constituted "degrading treatment" in violation of Article
3, that the absence of adequate judicial review denied them due process in
breach of Article 6, that they were denied the right to education in
breach of Article 2 of the Conventions First Protocol, and, finally, that
they suffered racial discrimination in the enjoyment of their right to
education, in violation of Article 14.

In deciding to hear the case, the Court rejected the Czech Government's
claim that some of the children, who had been transferred to "regular"
schools after the application was lodged, were no longer "victims"
entitled to seek judicial relief. This "does not, in the eyes of the
Court, suffice to erase the consequences of the applicants' having
attended, for a substantial period of time, a school that could not fully
match their abilities."

While reserving final judgment, the Court unanimously declared admissible
the applicants' main complaint of racial discrimination in the enjoyment
of the right to education (Article 14 of the Convention combined with
Article 2 of Protocol No. 1). The other claims were declared inadmissible.

Decision on the merits is pending.

For further information on the case, please contact Joelle Martin, ERRC
Legal Advisor, or James A. Goldston, Executive Director of the Open
Society Justice Initiative.