Expert eyes school discrimination

The human rights policies of Prime Minister Petr Nečas' government are again under the microscope as a Council of Europe commissioner paid a visit to Prague Nov. 18. 

Thomas Hammarberg, the council's human rights commissioner, sat down with The Prague Post in between meetings with government officials during a visit that comes at an opportune time.

"The issue of the Roma is now high on the European agenda," he said. "It has to be a Europe-wide effort, because they are just so discriminated against."

A 2007 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found that Roma children in the Czech Republic were being systematically diagnosed with a "mild mental disability" and therefore being diverted from mainstream schooling. The practice was found to violate the European Convention on Human Rights. The judgment included a series of recommendations to correct the problem, little to none of which have been implemented.

Asked if he agreed with a similar recounting of events, Hammarberg said, "That sounds right."

While Hammarberg insisted his visit came as part of his regular duties, it occurred on the eve of a Nov. 30 deadline for the Education Ministry to file an update to the council on its progress in addressing the ECHR recommendations.

"There is a need for some more forceful action," Hammarberg said.

The Council of Europe is an intergovernmental body that cooperates with but operates separately from the European Union. It has 47 members as opposed to the EU's 27. While the council promotes European integration and enjoys a great deal of influence in human rights policy, it has no binding enforcement mechanism.

Nečas' right-leaning coalition government has been criticized by NGOs for a number of steps since taking office in June.

The government did away with the position of human rights and minorities minister, downgrading the ministry to a committee level. The minister in two previous governments, Michael Kocáb, stayed on as head of the committee but was forced out completely in September. A successor has yet to be named, and another member of that committee resigned in protest earlier this month, as did two Education Ministry officials, who cited the failure to address the Roma education issue as their key motivation.

"[The government] referred to the economic problems and asked us to give them a chance," Hammarberg said. "But we have to look at action. For us, it is about results."

Mending relationships

Hammarberg is a longtime Swedish diplomat and human rights activist. He accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977 on behalf of Amnesty International and served as the group's secretary general from 1980 to '86. He has held his current position since April 2006 and says divisions have arisen between the Czech NGO community and the government, and that such relationships must be mended for any progress to be made on the Roma education issue.

"There is clearly a credibility gap," he said.

Hammarberg also cited an increased urgency to address discrimination Continent-wide, with difficult economic times among the factors fostering increased tensions with minority groups. 

"The previously communist countries have proportionally more Roma," he said. "During the communist years, the Roma did usually have [jobs], and with democracy and the market economy unemployment increased quite a lot."

More recently, Hammarberg said, Roma have "tended to be scapegoats" for economic troubles.

And such problems extend beyond Roma into other minority groups.

"We have to be rather careful," Hammarberg said. "We are even coming back to anti-Semitism in some cases."

Asked about German Chancellor Angela Merkel's recent comment that multiculturalism in her country had "failed," Hammarberg called it "unfortunate."

"These discussions that have begun about identity are also worrying," he added. "The dynamics of that is to exclude. Multiculturalism is a positive. It is part of European values."

Benjamin Cunningham can be reached at
bcunningham@praguepost.com