Transnational network wants to help Romani children access education

The Romani CRISS organization of Romania, in collaboration with the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, the Greek Helsinki Committee, the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) in Budapest, the Life Together (Vzájemné soužití) civic association in the Czech Republic and the Integro association of Bulgaria are implementing a project called DARE-net – the Desegregation and Action for Roma in Education network. The aim of this project is to create a transnational network of non-Romani and Romani civil society organizations to analyze, together with the academic community, initiatives and processes addressing the segregation of Romani children in the schools of Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, and Romania.

As part of the DARE project, the first joint international meeting of all the partners took place in Bucharest in February 2013. The meeting was an opportunity for all of the partners to discuss efforts to address this issue, share good practices in the area of education, and familiarize themselves with the forms that segregation takes in various countries.

The meeting included a discussion of legal aspects of segregation cases, existing legislation, and legal aspects of the issue of segregation in the schools. Various initiatives reported on their involvement with this issue and the steps that led to successful court judgments such as the European Court of Human Rights judgments proving discrimination in the schools (Horváth and Kiss vs. Hungary, D.H. and others versus Czech Republic, Sampanis versus Greece, Orsus versus Croatia).

Romani CRISS can be reached at oana@romanicriss.org and more information about the project can be found here:

http://www.romanicriss.org/PDF/Project%20description%20DARE.pdf