By Erika B. Schlager Counsel for International Law In 1999,
several Romani students from the Czech Republic brought a suit
before the European Court on Human Rights alleging that their
assignment to “special schools” for the mentally disabled was
tainted by racial prejudice and therefore violated European
human rights law. On February 7, 2006, a seven-member Chamber of
the Court held that the applicants failed to prove that their
placement in “special schools” was the singular result of
intentional racial discrimination. The plaintiffs have 3 months
to appeal to a 17-member Grand Chamber. Elsewhere in Central and
Southern Europe, Roma are also pursuing efforts to achieve equal
access to education. During the Communist-era, many East
European countries developed a practice of channeling Roma into
schools for children with mental disabilities, called “special
schools.” Critics have argued that this practice constitutes, de
facto, a form of segregating Roma into a separate and inferior
school system. The Ostrava