The ECHR had been seized by a young Roma from Hungary, represented by the European Center for Roma Rights, an NGO based in Brussels (ERRC). The young man believes that he was deprived of a good quality education because of his Roma origins.
From our correspondent in Budapest,
It’s a win for Imre Szolcsan. In 2013, this young Roma from Hungary attended Jókai Mór primary school in his village Pilisksaba, near Budapest. In this school, where young Roma were in the majority, the teaching was of poor quality and no one took care of Imre, who is hard of hearing.
The young boy’s mother then tried to enroll him in a better school, where he could have had an education adapted to his handicap. But the school refused. In Hungary, school segregation and ethnic discrimination are officially illegal. And the law allows parents to freely choose the place of schooling of their children. But in practice, an insidious segregation separates young Roma from other children.
In 2016, the European Commission estimated that 45% of Roma children in Hungary were in “separate” schools or classes and launched an infringement procedure against Hungary. This procedure is still ongoing and without tangible results.
A complaint that could set a precedent
The family filed a complaint with the Hungarian courts, but in vain. With the help of an NGO, the young Imre then applied to the European Court of Human Rights. The Court based in Strasbourg has just condemned Hungary for school segregation. The State will have to pay the plaintiff compensation of 7,000 euros. Now 17, the compensation awarded by the ECHR will enable Imre to finance his training as a welder in a vocational school.
This is not the first time that Hungary has been condemned for this reason. But according to Imre’s lawyers, this judgment sets a precedent, because the European Court goes beyond the individual case. She says that the mentioned school must stop all discrimination. And that the Hungarian state must follow the recommendations of NGOs, in particular those of the Roma Rights Center (ERRC), to end school segregation in the country.
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