Love me, I speak Romani": Janusz Korczak and the right of children to be loved
"Love me, I speak Romani": Janusz Korczak and the right of children to be loved

Summary/Abstract: The paper presents two of Janusz Korczak's core ideas about the human rights of children: the right to be respected and the right to be loved. One of the main philosophical ideas of Korczak was that "there is no child, there is a person." This is why he proclaimed that the child should be accepted as he or she is. The paper connects the ideas of Korczak with the theoretical work of Lewowicki about intercultural and multicultural education and with implementing them for Roma children. During the recent decades the Council of Europe and other international institutions have acknowledged the rights of minorities to education and literacy instruction in their mother tongue in order to better preserve their identity. However, the practices adopted in Europe show that this is not the case when it comes to Roma children. The Roma child's linguistic knowledge in Romani is considered an obstacle for integration and in many countries Roma children who do not know well the official language of the country are singled out and placed in "special schools". The situation of Roma children reflected in Korczak's work and advocacy and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, i.e. to have lessons in their mother tongue, appears to be a human right widely violated across Europe.

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