The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has found Croatia guilty of discriminating against and violating the right to education of 15 Roma pupils from the northern region of Medjimurje, and has ordered it to pay 4,500 euros to each pupil and 10,000 euros towards court costs, the Strasbourg-based court announced on Tuesday.
Recognising the efforts made by the Croatian authorities to ensure that Roma children received education, the ECHR Grand Chamber found that the placement of the Roma pupils in Roma-only classes during their primary education had not been justified, saying that it was in violation of articles 14 and 2 of Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which concern prohibition of discrimination and the right to education.
The court also found that the right of the Roma children to a fair trial within a reasonable time had not been respected, because it had taken the Croatian Constitutional Court six years to decide on their application, which the ECHR deemed too long.
In 2002, 15 pupils of Roma origin from the villages of Orehovica, Podturen and Trnovec in the Medjimurje region of northern Croatia took legal action against their primary schools for racial discrimination and violation of the right to education.
The pupils, placed in separate, Roma-only or mixed classes, claimed they were segregated because they were Roma, and that the Roma-only curriculum had 30 per cent less content than the official national curriculum.
The Cakovec Municipal Court dismissed their complaint in 2002, and the Constitutional Court in 2007, claiming that the reason why the children had been placed in separate classes was their insufficient command of the Croatian language.
The children lodged their application with the ECHR in 2003.
