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Slovak court awards compensation to Roma refused service

13 June 2014
2 minute read

A Slovak court has awarded compensation of EUR 600 to a Romani couple who were refused service by a bar in the east of the country five years ago. The non-governmental organization Counseling Center for Civil and Human Rights (Poradna pro občanská a lidská práva), which represented the Romani clients before the court, has issued a press release about the verdict.  

Slovak daily Sme reports that the plaintiffs consider the compensation to be too low and intend to appeal. The incident occurred in December 2009 at a bar in Spišské Vlachy the couple visited together with their ethnic Slovak colleagues from work. 

"The owner told us that he would not serve us in his bar because if he did, more Romani customers would be there tomorrow. I was working as an assistant at a primary school and the behavior of the owner toward me and my spouse was humiliating and outrageous," Roman Pecha describes the incident.

The District Court in Spišská Nová Ves handed down a first-instance verdict on the case in 2012. The court decided that while the Romani people had been discriminated against, it would not award them financial compensation.

The court instructed the bar owner to send the couple an apology in writing. The case was then reviewed by the Regional Court, which the NGO says criticized the first-instance court for not awarding financial satisfaction.

The Romani couple were not awarded compensation by the District Court until this most recent verdict, which was delivered to them at the start of this month. The court justified its decision by finding that the behavior of the bar owner violated the human dignity of the plaintiffs.

Referring to current international human rights law, the court also stated that any discrimination is objectively humiliating for those harmed and that such behavior is particularly dangerous and socially unacceptable. The daily Sme reports that Pecha considers the amount of compensation insufficient and intends to appeal, as he originally sought EUR 1 000.

Vanda Durbáková, the legal representative of the Romani clients, also says the compensation awarded by the court is disproportionately low. The case is not the first of its kind.

In the country of five million there are 105 000 Romani people according to official statistics, some of whom live in settlements with sub-standard hygiene conditions. Experts believe the Romani minority in Slovakia is much more numerous than that, however.

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