UN Calls on Czech Authorities to Desegregate Schools
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has called on the Czech Republic to end practices which segregate both Roma children and children with disabilities from mainstream education in its schools.
Following its recent review of children's rights in the Czech Republic, the committee reported “systematic and unlawful” segregation and discrimination directed against Roma children, and “de facto exclusion” of children with disabilities from mainstream education.
The committee noted that despite its previous recommendations, and a judgment from the European Court of Human Rights, “there continues to be serious and widespread issues of discrimination, particularly against the minority Roma children in the [Czech Republic], including the systemic and unlawful segregation of children of Roma origin from mainstream education”.
The Open Society Justice Initiative, the Open Society Foundations Disability Rights Initiative, the European Roma Rights Centre, the League of Human Rights, and the Mental Disability Advocacy Center—which together made a joint submission to the committee—welcomed its strong support of the rights of all children to have access to good-quality, inclusive education.
In observations published this week, it called on the government “to expeditiously take all measures necessary to ensure the effective elimination of any and all forms of segregating children of Roma origin,” noting particularly the need for a detailed timeline and defined benchmarks in implementing reforms.
The committee noted with serious concern that the “de facto exclusion of children with disabilities from mainstream education remains the norm,” as schools are permitted to refuse access to mainstream schooling on the basis of insufficient material resources. With parents left to fill this funding gap, it went on to criticize the “inappropriate transfer of the onus from the State to parents to fund their children’s education in a free public school.”
It called on the Czech government to ensure the provision of adequate financial, technical and human resources for schools to effectively provide mainstream education for children with disabilities.
Robert Kushen, executive director of the European Roma Rights Centre, welcomed the committee’s observations: “The Czech authorities once again have been clearly instructed to ensure that no child is excluded from quality education in mainstream schooling for another academic year. We urge the Czech Ministry of Education to institute urgent measures in response to growing international concern about illegal segregation.”