(Repeats story published late on Tuesday)
By Jan Lopatka
PRAGUE, Nov 13 (Reuters) - The Czech Republic discriminated against children from the Gypsy community by placing too many of them in schools for children with learning difficulties, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday.
In a ruling made available on its Web site, the Strasbourg-based court awarded damages of 4,000 euros to each of the 18 Gypsy, or Roma, families who filed the complaint.
The applicants, whose children were placed in special schools for children who could not follow the normal curriculum between 1996 and 1999, said their ethnic origin was the reason why their children were put in special schools.
"The Court observed that, even if the exact percentage of Roma children in special schools at the relevant time remained difficult to establish, their number was disproportionately high and Roma pupils formed a majority of the pupils in special schools," the ruling said.
The court considered that tests given to rule on children's enrolment into special schools did not take into account the specifics of the Gypsy community.
"Since it had been established that the relevant Czech legislation at the relevant time had had a disproportionately prejudicial effect on the Roma community, the applicants as members of that community had necessarily suffered the same discriminatory treatment," the ruling said.
Czech Minister for Human Rights and Minorities Dzamila Stehlikova told Reuters the Czech Republic has implemented a number of changes, such as abolishing the special schools and setting up pre-school classes for Gypsy children to prepare them for normal schools.
"The criticism is probably justified, when we look into the past, but the situation has changed very much since," she told Reuters. "This case is an old debt, a skeleton that has fallen out of the closet," she added.
Executive Director Vera Egenberger of the European Roma Rights Centre, which assisted the applicants in the case, said she was delighted at the decision.
"We just got the judgment, it is positive and we are absolutely excited about it," she said, adding this should change the practice in a number of European countries.
Her group's research showed that Czech Gypsy children were 27 times more likely to end up in a special school than non-Gypsy children.
The court said its decision was supported by 13 judges, with four submitting dissenting opinions. There are about 250,000 to 300,000 Gypsies in the 10.3 million Czech Republic. ((jan.lopatka@reuters.com; +420 224 190 477; Reuters Messaging: jan.lopatka.reuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: CZECH GYPSIES/DISCRIMINATION
