Case-law summary: Center for Civil and Human Rights v ŠM Primary and Nursery School

The Prešov Regional Court, one of the courts of appeals of the Slovak Republic, affirmed a lower court’s decision that schools cannot discriminate against children based on their ethnic origin or socially disadvantaged background. The Prešov Regional Court held that the defendant school was discriminating against children of Romani ethnic origin by placing those kids in separate Romani classes. It ordered that the school rectify the situation by the beginning of the next school year.

Ignored and unequal: Roma access to the right to housing and education in Turkey

Roma, Education, Housing, Turkey, Minorities

Turkey’s Roma population and similar social groups such as Abdal, totalling between two million and five million, have long been one of the country’s most marginalised communities. From hate speech and the threat of targeted violence to extreme poverty and exclusion, they suffer discrimination in almost every area of their lives. This situation has been sustained not only by deep-rooted social prejudice, but also by the indifference and even complicity of authorities to address their second-class status in Turkey.

Roma Early Childhood Inclusion: Special Report on Roma Inclusion in Early Childhood Education and Care

This report consists of three main chapters. The first chapter enumerates all the mechanisms contributing to the development of educational inequalities in the Czech Republic’s education system, which are summarised to provide a context for the focus of this report—the ECEC of Roma children.

École obligatoire : la scolarisation des enfants Roms à l'école élémentaire Marie Curie de Bobigny, France

Nombre de familles de Roms migrants s’attachent a faire en sorte que leurs enfants puisse être scolarisés et maintenir ainsi un pont culturel entre leur communauté et « le reste du monde ». Pourtant, la vie itinérante, le démantèlement régulier des campements et le rejet dont sont objet les communautés sont un lourd handicap dans leur parcours d’intégration. L’école de la République permet de maintenir ou ce créer ce lien social et certaines familles l’ont bien compris.

Breaking the Law: Stories of Roma Discrimination in Czech Schools

Over a year ago, a group of colleagues from Amnesty International and I started field research into discrimination of Romani children in Czech primary schools. We aimed to get an in-depth understanding of the daily reality beyond the official statistics (in Czech) which persistently show that over a third of pupils in schools and classes for children with mild mental disabilities are Roma. In addition, we also wanted to examine the situation of Roma in mainstream schools.

Date: 
2 June 2015

Must Try Harder - Ethnic Discrimination of Romani Children in Czech Schools

This report documents how the the Czech authorities are violating the human rights of Romani children in schools across the country. Romani children in the Czech Republic have for decades suffered systemic discrimination in primary education. Many are placed in so-called practical schools designated for pupils with mild mental disabilities. Those in mainstream schools are often segregated in Roma-only schools and classes or otherwise treated differently. Reports of racial bullying and ostracisation by non-Roma pupils, and even open prejudice by some teachers, are frequent.