Slovakia and the Czech Republic were slammed by Europe's human rights watchdog on Wednesday, October 14 for a lack of progress in eliminating the segregation of Roma children in schools and claimed hate speech towards Roma. According to Reuters, the Council of Europe's Human Rights Commissioner Nils Muižnieks criticised what he called chronic, pervasive segregation of Roma children in schools and their high drop-out rates.
"Although Slovakia's anti-discrimination framework is comprehensive, it provides a differing degree of protection for various vulnerable social groups and must be reformed to close all protection gaps", said Muižnieks.
According to a 2010 household survey carried out by the United Nations Development Programme, almost one in five Slovak Roma dropped out of school during primary education and only 17 percent chose to continue with secondary studies. The survey also showed that 43 percent of Roma children in mainstream schools were schooled in different classes with primarily Roma students.
