Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák rejects the criticism from three NGOs that called upon the Slovak Government on Tuesday June 9 to stop using Roma incest as an argument for justifying segregated education for Roma children in Slovakia. European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), Amnesty International Slovensko and Open Society Foundation (NOS) claimed that pointing out the higher incest rate in the Roma community is a stereotype and using it as justification for the segregation in education represents a typical racist argument and a signal of failure in the process of seeking true solutions to discrimination. The three NGOs urge the Cabinet to make sure that legislation and policies in Slovakia are in accord with the antidiscrimination legislation of the European Union.
"It's been clearly indicated that the potential of genetic changes is much higher there - in Roma settlements and we simply can't hide the truth behind political correctness. That would get us to a really hypocritical territory, where we'd fail to address the problem. If you don''t call the problem the way it is, you can't resolve it," said Minister Kaliňák in response. In April, the European Commission launched proceedings against Slovakia over the violation of EU anti-discrimination legislation by discriminating against Roma children at school. The Slovak Government attempted to justify the disproportionate numbers of Roma children at special schools with a higher presence of genetic defects among ethnic Roma, pointing out that the group has the highest coefficient of inbreeding in Europe.
