[MGSA-L] Roma schoolchildren in Greece and families returning to European Court

[Roland Moore]

Cross-posted from the Balkan Human Rights list:

Roma schoolchildren in Greece and families  returning to European Co 
Posted by: "Greek Helsinki Monitor" office at greekhelsinki.gr   cedimese 
Tue May 10, 2011 10:31 am (PDT) 


Case Watch: Take Two on Greek Roma School

April 29, 2011 | by 
<http://blog. soros.org/ author/sarah- montgomery/>Sarah Montgomery

In “Case Watch,” staff of the 
<http://www.soros. org/initiatives/ justice>Open 
Society Justice Initiative provide quick-hit 
analysis of recent notable court decisions that 
relate to their work to advance human rights law around the world.

Roma schoolchildren in Greece and their families 
are returning to the European Court of Human 
Rights, demanding an end to segregation in Greek schools.

The Court has officially informed the Greek 
government that it is taking up a new case, 
Ioanna Sampani and Others v. Greece (text in 
French), which was filed by Greek Helsinki 
Monitor, a local human rights group. Unusually, 
the case repeats the allegations made in a 2008 
case brought by the same families, in which the 
court has already ruled that Greece had 
discriminated against Roma children in education, 
and failed to provide an effective remedy for that violation of their rights.

The 2008 judgment found that Roma children living 
in the Psari settlement of Aspropyrgos, a suburb 
of Athens, had been excluded from the town’s 10th 
Elementary School and sent to study in a separate 
annex, completely segregated from non-Roma children.

But despite the judgment, the conditions at what 
has become known as the “Aspropyrgos Roma ghetto 
school” have deteriorated. The annex that had 
originally housed the Roma children burned down 
in 2007 and was replaced by a new building, which 
was declared to be the 12th Elementary School of 
Aspropyrgos. Rather than use this opportunity to 
integrate schools in the town, the authorities 
continued the practice of using the new 12th 
school for only Roma students. It was damaged in 
early 2008, and by December 2008 it was 
considered dangerous for teachers and students. 
The school fence was broken, the playground 
destroyed, the toilets did not function, and 
there was no cooling or heating system. Chairs, 
lighting, cabinets, and other fixtures had been stolen.

The Roma claimants in the new case argue that 
they are still discriminated against, that they 
lack an effective legal remedy, and that Greece 
has failed to execute the earlier judgment.

The case also follows 
<http://www.soros. org/initiatives/ justice/litigati on/czechrepublic>D.H. 
and Others v. the Czech Republic, which addressed 
a similar situation of discrimination against 
Roma children in Czech schools, and where there 
has also been a systematic failure to implement 
the judgment of the Court. These cases illustrate 
the detrimental impact that widespread bias 
against Roma in Europe is having on Roma children.

It is unusual for the Strasbourg Court to take up 
a case involving a defendant State while the 
implementation­ or lack of it­of a nearly 
identical case is still being considered by the 
Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. 
The Court may be doing so in order to highlight 
the systemic nature of the problem, including the 
apparent failure of Greece to implement the prior 
case. In its communication to Greece, the Court 
noted that the situation at the Aspropyrgos 
school appears to be a long-term problem, despite 
the Greek government’s argument that it was a 
temporary issue caused by lack of space.

Implementation is an issue that the Open Society 
Justice Initiative has explored in detail in its 
report 
<http://www.soros. org/initiatives/ justice/focus/ international_ justice/articles _publications/ publications/ from-judment- to-justice201011 22>From 
Judgment to Justice. The failure, so far, to 
implement D.H. and Others v. the Czech Republic 
illustrates the challenges of executing a 
judgment of discrimination against Roma 
schoolchildren. The recognition that there is a 
systemic problem in Aspropyrgos and Greece will 
hopefully lead to the structural reforms that are 
necessary to bring about integrated schooling.