Brief reflections on the exercise of the right to education of the romany minority

• Author: Ramona Duminica - Andreea Tabacu
• Position: Assist. Ph.D., University of Pitesti, Faculty of Law and Administrative Sciences - Lect. Ph.D., University of Pitesti, Faculty of Law and Administrative Sciences
• Pages: 33-41

BRIEF REFLECTIONS ON THE EXERCISE OF THE RIGHT TO

EDUCATION OF THE ROMANY MINORITY

Ramona Duminică

∗

∗∗

∗

Andreea Tabacu

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∗∗

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∗

Abstract:

The right to education, a fundamental human right should be organised in a way that

it guarantees equal opportunities to people, stating first of all the prohibition of

discrimination or of privileges.

Although international regulations establish and guarantee, both at general level, as

well as in particular, the right to instruction without discrimination, the exercise of this right

continues to be a problem for some minorities, such as in the case of the Romany minority.

Therefore, this article aims at re-bringing into discussion the problem of segregation

in education with respect to Romany children, having as starting point the contents of the

Directive on Racial Equality of the European Union (2000/43/CE) and some of the cases

settled by the European Court of Human Rights in this matter.

Keywords: right to education, Romany minority, segregation in education,

discrimination, CEDO case-law.

Introduction

In modern times, the existence of ethnic, religious or language communities is an

undeniable reality which justifies the special concern for the legal protection of human

rights, generally and implicitly, as integrant part into legal protection of minorities.

The minority groups of population are thousands worldwide, including hundreds of

millions of people, with the various ethnic origins, traditions and languages. Following the

recent studies, only in Europe is found the existence of around 80 minorities. Facing these

realties, the international law created and promoted a constructive policy regarding the

minorities, which contributes to the maintenance of an internal and international stability.

1. General legal framework

In Africa and Asia, the number of the minority population, linguistic or tribal

communities, with different ethnic features is greater.

1

Among the international conventions on protection of minorities we find: the

International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in 1965,

the Convention against Discrimination in Education adopted by UNESCO in 1960, the

American Convention on Human Rights in 1969, the African Charter on Human and People’s

∗

Assist. Ph.D., University of Pitesti, Faculty of Law and Administrative Sciences,

duminica.ramona@yahoo.com

**

Lect. Ph.D., University of Pitesti, Faculty of Law and Administrative Sciences, andreea.tabacu@ upit.ro

1

Aurel Preda Mătăsaru, Tratat de drept internaţional p ublic, 2

nd

Edition reviewed and amended, Lumina Lex

Publishing house, Bucharest, 2006, p. 219-227.