Education in Russia: Christina, 5, Wins Her Court Case
By Oleg Pronin, Perspektiva. Perspektiva is a disability advocacy organization based in Moscow and details can be found on the web in English: http://Perspektiva-inva.ru/index-eng.shtml
Since July 2004, Perspektiva has been developing a disability legal advocacy network in 4 regions of Russia as part of a USAID funded project, The Protection of the Human and Legal Rights of Russians with Disabilities: Access to Education. The goal of this network is to provide support for disabled persons to defend their rights to gain equal access to education. Although Perspektiva's lawyers are still in the process of learning, Perspektiva and its partners have initiated 19 court cases and won 5 of these cases.
Christina is 5 years old and lives in a small town on the northern border of Moscow. She has Down's Syndrome and, like many children in Russia with a developmental disability, has been excluded from the educational system in Russia.
Christina's mother, Elena, made her plea to the local Board of Education to accept Christina into a nursery. Her request was rejected because there are no specialized nurseries in their town; Christina was also not welcome into a regular nursery as there are no special programs and teachers in the regular schools. In addition, they named the "instructions" of the Ministry of Education that was passed in 1968 that forbid disabled children from studying at mainstream preschools.
When Elena's request was rejected, she submitted a complaint to the Prosecutor's office. But the Prosecutor defended the Department of Education's decision. Then Elena decided to speak out for the rights of her child by taking her case to the courts. Elena contacted Perspektiva's lawyers for support and Perspektiva's lawyer Oleg Pronin represented Elena and Christina in court. Additional technical support was also provided by Sergey Koloskov, the President of the Moscow Down Syndrome Association.
Our legal position was based on the following:
The Russian Constitution and Legislation on Education guarantees the right of each person, including a disabled child, to an education. Hence the Departments of Education has the responsibility to establish the necessary conditions for the child to exercise this right, e.g. hire the necessary teachers, and to provide financial and methodological support. Moreover, their reference to the Instructions passed in 1968 is also unlawful as these instructions have lost their validity. Finally, a lawsuit was filed against the local Department of Education.
Perspektiva's lawyers prepared explanations on this case, presented information about legislation supporting our position. In order to prove that integrated nurseries exist, a specialist from one Moscow based inclusive nursery was invited to make a statement about the work of her preschool.
In the end, the judge accepted our position and made a decision in favor of the plaintiff - Elena and her daughter Christina. The judge declared that rejecting Christina is not justified by the lack of special conditions at the nursery. This is not a reason for depriving her of an education. Furthermore, the Department of Education is responsible for providing such support for Christina.
The Department of Education's decision was deemed illegal and the courts demanded that the Department accommodate Christina at the preschool. This decision has already gone into effect.
The importance of this decision cannot be overestimated. Not only does it provide the opportunity for Christina to go to school, it sets a precedent for other similar cases. One of the most popular explanations given by the department of Education for rejecting a disabled child is insufficient funds. As a result many disabled children are deprived of an education. By disseminating information about this case, more and more parents and lawyers will be inspired to take these kinds of cases to court as they have this successful example to guide them.
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