ERRC: Lawsuit Against Segregation of Roma in Croatian Schools
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Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 15:54:41 +0300 (EEST)
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Subject: ERRC: Lawsuit Against Segregation of Roma in Croatian Schools
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: European Roma Rights Center <[email protected]>
ERRC: Lawsuit Against Segregation of Roma in Croatian Schools
Lawsuits filed by Roma Challenge Racial Segregation in Croatian
Primary Schools
April 19, 2002, a group of 57 Romani children in Medimurje County,
Croatia, assisted by local counsel and the European Roma Rights Center
(ERRC), filed a legal complaint with a Croatian court challenging
their segregation into separate Roma-only classes in what are
otherwise �normal� primary schools.
The lawsuit filed with the Cakovec Municipal Court charges the
Croatian Ministry of Education, the Medimurje County local government,
as well as four primary schools in Orehovica, Macinec, Kur�anec and
Podturen, with segregating the plaintiffs and numerous other Romani
children into separate and educationally inferior classes simply based
on their ethnic identity. The complaint further alleges that the
result of this practice is the denial of equal educational
opportunities for most Romani children.
The evidence documented in the complaint and based on official
statistics shows that almost 60% of all Romani primary school students
in Medimurje County regularly attend segregated classrooms. As a
result of this practice, the plaintiffs, like many other Romani
children throughout the county, have suffered, and indeed continue to
suffer, severe educational, psychological and emotional harm,
including the following:
* they have been subjected to a curriculum far inferior to that in
regular classes, with attendant damage to their opportunities to
secure adequate employment in the future;
* they have been stigmatized with the effects of diminished
self-esteem and feelings of humiliation, alienation and lack of
self-worth;
* they have been forced to study in racially segregated classrooms and
hence denied the benefits of a multi-cultural educational environment.
�Attempts to explain away racial segregation can never be persuasive,�
said ERRC Executive Director Dimitrina Petrova. �Whatever the excuse
offered, the solution is to give help where it is needed, not in
continued segregation. Equal educational opportunities are the only
way to break the cycle of poverty and unemployment suffered by Roma in
the region.�
The complaint demands:
* a judicial finding of racial segregation;
* an order that the defendants develop and implement a monitoring
system and a plan to end racial segregation and discrimination and to
achieve full racial integration; and
* an order that the plaintiffs be placed in racially integrated
classrooms and provided with the compensatory education necessary for
them to overcome the debilitating effects of past discrimination and
segregation.
According to the ERRC, the current situation clearly violates the
Croatian Constitution, other provisions of domestic law, and numerous
binding international treaties ratified by Croatia, including the
European Convention on Human Rights.
Failure to secure effective remedies in domestic courts will result in
an application to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
* Further information on the situation of Roma in Croatia is available
http://errc.org/publications/indices/croatia.shtml.
For more information on the ERRC desegregation lawsuit, please contact
Gloria Jean Garland, ERRC Legal Director. (E-mail: [email protected],
Phone: +361 413 2200).
_____________________________________________
The European Roma Rights Center is an international public interest
law organisation which monitors the rights of Roma and provides legal
defence in cases of human rights abuse. For more information about the
European Roma Rights Center, visit the ERRC on the web at
http://www.errc.org.
European Roma Rights Center
1386 Budapest 62
P.O. Box 906/93
Hungary
Phone: +36 1 4132200
Fax: +36 1 4132201
_____________________________________________
SUPPORT THE ERRC!
The European Roma Rights Center is dependent upon the generosity of
individual donors for its continued existence. If you believe the ERRC
performs a service valuable to the public, please join in enabling its
future with a contribution. Gifts of all sizes are welcome; bank
transfers are preferred. Please send your contribution to:
European Roma Rights Center
Budapest Bank Rt.
99P00402686
1054 Budapest
Bathory utca 1
Hungary
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