Head teachers in and around the northern Czech municipality of Ostrava routinely placed Czech nationals of Roma origin in so-called 'special schools', which were otherwise foreseen for children with learning difficulties who were unable to follow the ordinary school curriculum. The decisions were taken based on tests measuring the children's intellectual capacity.
A number of young people, born between between 1985 and 1991, had complained to the Ostrava education authority about tests that had taken place in the second half of the nineties. However, the authority dismissed their complaints.
12 of the applicants appealed to the Czech Constitutional Court. They argued that their placement in special schools amounted to a general practice of segregation and racial discrimination by creating two autonomous educational systems, namely special schools for the Roma and 'ordinary' primary schools for the majority of the population. In 1999, their appeal was dismissed once again.
In 2000, they lodged an application with the European Court of Human Rights. They had to wait another five years before the notoriously overcharged Court declared their application partly admissible.
Finally, on 13 November 2007, the Court judged that they had been discriminated against on racial grounds and deprived of their basic right of access to education.
It held that the Czech legislation at the time had "a disproportionately prejudicial effect on the Roma community". Moreover, the Court mentioned that, according to reports from ECRI and the Commissioner for Human Rights, the Czech Republic was not the only country in Europe where Roma are being discriminated against with respect to education.
The Court pointed out, however, that, unlike some other countries, the Czechs have attempted to tackle the problem. In the meantime, special schools in the Czech Republic have been abolished and all children, including those with special educational needs and the socially disadvantaged, are being educated in ordinary schools.
Less than a week ago, Italy made the headlines after the country's centre-left government deported 38 Romanians of Roma origin, a decision which sparked a racist outbreak against the country's Roma population, led by xenophobic politicians including Lega Nord leader Gianfranco Fini.
