School discrimination of Roma: Infringement proceedings against Czech Republic

The European Commission has initiated infringement proceedings against the Czech Republic for failure to correctly implement the Racial Equality Directive, due to systemic discrimination of Roma children in schools. The discrimination that has been taking place in the Czech school system includes segregation processes directing Roma children towards special schools for children with mild mental disabilities and segregated classes exclusively for Roma pupils.

The infringement proceedings follow numerous signals by the European Network of Legal Experts in the non-discrimination field through its publications, including the annual country reports for the Czech Republic, the comparative analyses published annually and the thematic report Segregation of Roma children in Education: Addressing Structural Discrimination through the Race Equality Directive, written by Lilla Farkas and published already in 2007. MPG welcomes these infringement proceedings, hoping that they will bring about equal access to education for children in the Czech Republic, irrespective of ethnic origin and free from discrimination on any ground.