Bosnian Court Rules Against Ethnic Segregation In Schools

The applicant in the case, local rights group Vasa Prava, says there are still 34 schools in Bosnia that don't have ethnically mixed classes.

A Bosnian court has ruled that the ethnic separation of students in some local schools amounts to discrimination.

The court, in the southern town of Mostar, ordered education officials and two schools in the area to abolish the practice and establish mixed classes for Muslim and Croat children.

The April 27 ruling followed an ethnic discrimination lawsuit filed by the local rights group Vasa Prava.

The schools were working under a "two-schools-under-one-roof" system implemented in 1999 in several Bosnian regions inhabited by Muslims and Croats.

The system, following the 1992-95 Balkan war, was a compromise aimed at putting Muslim and Croat students in the same building and paving the way for the creation of mixed classes.

But according to Vasa Prava, there are still 34 schools in Bosnia that don't have ethnically mixed classes.

Based on reporting by AFP and HINA