On 4 December 2023, in a seminal ruling, the Constitutional Court of Czechia found that a child with disabilities had been unconstitutionally denied access to education and a fair trial due to the failure of the lower courts to adequately address the discrimination claims of a child with autism.
The case started in 2015, and it concerned an obligation imposed on the child’s mother, Ms. Zmatlíková, to pay a teaching assistant’s salary. The child could only go to school if his mother paid for the assistant. Despite reports confirming the school’s misconduct, the courts dismissed the family’s legal actions on multiple occasions. Even more, they ordered the mother to reimburse the school’s legal costs of 198,295 CZK (the equivalent of over 8,000 EUR), which clearly placed a heavy burden on her.
Fortunately, the Constitutional Court has now overruled the lower courts and accepted that the child’s rights had been breached. The Constitutional Court found that the lower courts had wrongly imposed an obligation on Ms. Zmatlíková to pay excessive court fees. Following the precedent-setting ruling, Ms. Zmatlíková said:
“I very much welcome today’s decision of the Constitutional Court. Every child needs to have the opportunity to be educated in a mainstream and inclusive school environment, and the family should not have to bear the costs of inclusive education. It is a human right. We are therefore very pleased that the Constitutional Court has today ruled that a child with a disability also has the right to free education and support so that he or she can attend a mainstream primary school.”
The decision sets a significant precedent for promoting inclusion and equal opportunities within the Czech education system for children with disabilities, with the Constitutional Court explicitly acknowledging that each child is entitled to inclusive education.
Maros Matiaško, Forum for Human Rights, the attorney representing the applicant, has said:
“Today’s judgment of the Constitutional Court is an enormous victory for children with disabilities in the Czechia. The Constitutional Court has recognised expressly that every child has a right to inclusive education, and the state must ensure reasonable accommodation without any costs for families. Only in such circumstances can education be free to all, as human rights standards require. Moreover, the Court emphasised the rights of all children, including children with disabilities, to participate in judicial proceedings defending their rights, confirming that disability cannot be used to justify their exclusion from the trial. Instead, this ruling confirms that judges must adopt procedural accommodations to ensure participation.”
The ruling sets an access to justice precedent, strengthening access to judicial remedies for children with disabilities when seeking enforcement of crucial human rights standards, including the right to an inclusive education. In so doing, it cracks down on the problematic practice of executive and judicial entities closing down access to justice by imposing disproportionate costs and sanctions on children and their parents, opening up legal routes to exonerate disability rights claims.
Šárka Dušková, Litigation Director of Validity, further emphasised:
“We much appreciate also the Constitutional Court’s clear stance that the children with disabilities and their parents must be able to effectively seek judicial protection of their human rights. In this case, the general courts essentially punished the client’s mother’s brave initiative by unlawfully awarding extremely high adverse costs against her. If uncorrected, such decisions would have had a chilling effect on the ability of parents to seek judicial protection in human rights and constitutional claims. The Constitutional Court – together with us – clearly says that this is unacceptable“.