Hard to believe.
BBC headline: The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Croatia did not discriminate against Roma pupils by putting them in separate, all-Roma classes at school.
The court seems to endorse racism and segregation. It sets a very dangerous precedent. I know they don't care much about what happens in backwards places like Croatia and stuff, but still.
I want to know what the judges were smoking....
The court seems to endorse racism and segregation. It sets a very dangerous precedent. I know they don't care much about what happens in backwards places like Croatia and stuff, but still.
I want to know what the judges were smoking....
4 comments:
Europe has not fire in it anymore. Only a few scandinavian countries care a little bit about human rights.
I think after the restoration of legitemacy Armenia should come out of any EU memberships and try to establish close ties with Georgia and slowly with Azerbaijan and other Caucasian republic form some sort of union.
I second AntiFa's proposal toward a closer Caucafian Union: Armenia, Georgia, Abkhasia and Artsakh first (with regionalist and localist devolution policies mimicking the EU), and if Azerbaijan wants to join later they're welcome. This is the kind of direction that Armenia and Caucasus should have been moving toward in the last 11 years (buy building and fully integrating the economies of Georgia and Armenia), but with the way that thing are now is that Georgia is much closer to Azerbaijan than Armenia...
Georgia has it's favourable location and shipping - a gateway into the seas and world markets. Azerbaijan has it's oil, pipelines and soon it's railroad, while Armenia has nothing to bring to the table - not even a significant IT industry.
As for discrimination -- I can see how the case was highly contestable. The same thing is happening with the Yezidi Kurd minority in Armenia. There are state-funded Kurdish lessons, using state-funded Kurmanji (one of the Kurdish dialects) textbooks. The lessons run in schools where Kurdish minority has significant presence. Those lessons run concurrent with other lessons that are common to general curriculum. The parents of the Kurdish kids have a "choice" to make for their kids, with regards to which classes their kids will attend: Kurdish Literature or Mathematics. Needless to say, the parents often choose the latter, cause it's important for later acceptance into university etc. The Armenian government says that this is done due to shortage of resources and for efficiency. Kurdish minorities don't really complain. And the Kurdish diaspora pretty much praises the Armenian record on human rights for Kurds in Armenia, because with their own Radio program (which many Kurds in turkey listen attentively and which Turkish Government has accused as sparking the PKK activities), with their own newspaper (which has been running since the time of Lenin) and with state-funded cirriculum, this is "the least worst" treatment that the Kurds get when compared to other countries.
In addition, Yezidi Kurds don't really complain because there is this attitude "These are not our lands, We came here 150 years ago and found safe heaven ever since" -- But if you read between the lines of such thinking, you will see that this is segregationist, rather than a statement of civic integration and civic belonging.
Now, is the Armenian government doing this for "efficiency" purposes or is it a part of Armeniamn Statist program for assimilation of whatever minorities that are left? The case is inconclusive...
Garen, the key word in your comment is "choice". From the Roma lawsuit, it seems that the Croat government forced the Roma kids to separate schools.
I have no problem with making the choice to segregate yourself (to maintain your ethnic identity, stay in the same community, etc.).
I have a big problem with forced segregation, and why not, forced de-segregation by the government.
Let people weigh their options and decide what they want to do.
The Kurds need to stop fighting each other and unify. They should pick a defined geographical location and fight for it, and it only. Then when they win, they should let Armenians buy lands there and invest, instead of the vultures that will come sniffing. Kurdish-Armenian solidarity has a historical precedent, although several of their tribes, renegade, selfish, power-hungry ones, have a lot to answer for.
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