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Greek Roma Win Human Rights Case

Greek RomaThe European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled today that the failure of Greek authorities to integrate Roma children into the ordinary education system amounted to discrimination against them.
The applicants of the case Sampani and Others v. Greece were 140 Greek nationals, all of Roma origin, who complained to the court that they or their children had been enrolled at the 12th school primary school in Aspropyrgos which was attended exclusively by children from their own community and provided a lower standard of education than other schools.

In 2008, the 12th primary school was opened and it was set up to replace an annexe to the 10th Primary School which had been mainly attended by Roma children, and was supposed to admit Roma and non-Roma pupils alike. It was assigned the same catchment area as the 9th and 10th schools.
However, due to the worsened state of the school facilities damaged during the summer period, the Ministry of Education asked the mayor of Aspropyrgos and the prefect of West Attica to approve a merger of the 12th and 11th schools. The prefect refused on social, cultural and educational grounds.

The Greek Ombudsman then interfered stating that the failure to implement presidential decree no. 201/1998 – by which all pupils living in a particular school’s catchment area had to be transferred to that school, even if this had not been requested by their parents – had had the effect of transforming the 12th school into a “ghetto school”, since no non-Roma pupils from the region were enrolled there.

According to the ECHR, there was a strong presumption of discrimination against the applicants on account of the placement of Roma children in special classes in an annexe to the 10th school’s main building, coupled with a number of ‘racist incidents provoked by the parents of non-Roma children’.

In addition, the court held that Greece was to pay €1 000 to each of the applicant families in respect of non-pecuniary damage and €2 000 to the applicants jointly in respect of costs and expenses.
(source: neurope, ECHR)

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