ECtHR rules against CzechRep for discrimination of Romanies

The Czech Republic violated the ban on discrimination contained in the European Convention on Human Rights when it sent 18 children of Romany origin to special schools designed for children with learning difficulties, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights ruled today.

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DOCUMENT: GRAND CHAMBER JUDGMENT D.H. AND OTHERS v. THE CZECH REPUBLIC

The Czech Republic also breached an article of a protocol to the treaty concerning the right to education, the court said.
The Grand Chamber thus overturned last year’s lower-level contrary ruling, which the complainants appealed.

The Romanies from Ostrava, aged 16-22, complained in Strasbourg that they had been placed in special schools in 1996-1999 under circumstances that violated the European Convention on Human Rights.

Today’s verdict was passed by 13 to 4 votes.

The Grand Chamber allotted 4,000 euros (110,000 crowns) to each of the 18 complainants as compensation for moral harm they suffered and a total of 10,000 euros to all of them as compensation for court expenditures.