The Council of Europe's Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities has called on the Slovak authorities to eliminate discrimination against Roma children in education and to improve the mechanism for promoting the culture of national minorities. The committee in a statement stressed that the priority should be to support inclusive and quality education for Roma children, and the Slovak authorities should "resolutely address" school segregation and the over-representation of Roma children in special classes and in schools for pupils with mild mental disabilities. The Council of Europe added that other priorities should be to investigate cases of the forced sterilisation of Roma women, to compensate its victims, and to implement a sustainable housing policy aimed at eliminating the spatial segregation of Roma communities. The opinion of the advisory committee is based on information obtained directly from governmental and non-governmental sources during its visit to Slovakia in the autumn of 2021.
Source: TASR
