Breaking the Cycle of School Segregation: ERRC Pushes for Romani Children’s Rights in Albania and North Macedonia
05 November 2025
By Judit Ignacz
Across Europe, Romani communities, especially women and children, continue to face systemic discrimination that governments have long failed to address. Justice on paper is only meaningful if it is implemented. That is why the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), working together with national equality bodies, has taken a decisive step to ensure that legal protections are enforced into real change by filing two Rule 9 submissions to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. The submissions concern two cases of school segregation; X and Others v. Albania and Elmazova and Others v. North Macedonia, and urge the governments in North Macedonia and Albania to dismantle segregated schools and deliver meaningful remedies for affected communities.
A Long-Standing Problem
In North Macedonia, Romani families from Bitola and Štip have faced systemic segregation in primary schools for a number of years. In both areas, the segregation was largely due to non-Romani parents removing their children and enrolling them in schools with lower numbers of Romani students in attendance (a phenomenon known as white flight). The process of ‘white flight’ is connected to lower-quality education in the Roma-majority schools and an inability for Romani parents, often aided by school authorities, to do the same as non-Roma and enrol their children somewhere where they could receive a better education. The ERRC supported Romani families from the area in taking the complaint to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and in December 2022, the ECtHR found clear violations of their children’s right to non-discriminatory education.
In the Albanian city of Korça, the Naim Frashëri Primary School is a painful example of persistent segregation in practice, with nearly 99% of its students being Romani or Egyptian children. The school was previously racially integrated, but efforts to encourage attendance by Romani and Egyptian students led to ‘white flight’, leaving the school almost completely segregated. Despite repeated findings and recommendations from the Albanian Equality Commissioner in 2015 and 2017, authorities failed to take meaningful action to make the school inclusive. Due to this inaction, the ERRC supported families in taking the case to the ECtHR, which largely agreed with the ERRC in its 2022 judgment.
Despite these judgments and government efforts, desegregation has still not been fully realised in the schools in question in either country. As such, the ERRC has filed Rule 9 submissions to the Committee of Ministers in both cases, urging them to continue examining the execution of the judgments while acknowledging the governments’ commitment to implementation and efforts so far.
Beyond the Courtroom
Both submissions highlight a persistent issue and, importantly, show that the true impact of rulings depends on their implementation and what happens next.
“Education is a basic right, not a privilege. School segregation denies Romani children their right to education, their right to dignity, and equal treatment. It also robs them of their future and opportunities to succeed in life. The ruling is an important step, but real change depends on implementation. For Romani children, it’s long overdue for words to turn into real, tangible change,” said Vivien Brassói, Legal Director of the ERRC.
The governments’ years of inaction, systemic neglect, and delay can maintain discrimination, and is just as harmful as deliberate exclusion.
Systemic discrimination persists not only because of overt prejudice but also due to policy gaps, complacency, and a lack of political will. The ERRC will continue monitoring the situation closely, ensuring that North Macedonia and Albania take concrete steps to end school segregation, provide Romani children with the education they deserve, and provide justice and compensation for affected families.
