In a judgment delivered on Thursday 30 March, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) condemned Hungary for discrimination and obstructing the right to education of a Roma child.
The child went to a primary school attended almost exclusively by Roma and asked to be transferred to a school in the neighbouring town, which was only a five-minute ride away by public transport and where he felt the quality of education was better.
He was refused on the grounds that he did not live in the school’s catchment area, even though a quarter of the schools pupils lived in the same town as he did.
The judgment came as eleven “inclusive education ambassadors” met in Strasbourg this week to discuss Roma and Traveller education as part of a joint EU-Council of Europe project (INSCHOOL).
For Dora Onody-Molnar, journalist and ambassador for Hungary, it is essential that Roma children are educated in the same classes as other Hungarian children, because “you cannot build a society if children are separated at school”.
To date, the ECHR has handed down nine judgments concerning the segregation of Roma children in schools.
Four other cases are still pending. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)