A serious constitutional issue There is growing evidence that in the case of the defence of the individual freedoms of European citizens against abuse, the European Constitutional draft is likely to remain paper only. There is growing evidence that the very institutions which the European Constitution will rely upon to defend human rights may well fail. The track records of the European Commission, the European Petitions Committee and the Ombudsman show disturbing joint failures to respond to serious human rights issues. Indeed, they jointly failed to resolve the single most serious case of human rights abuse in the European Union. This is the case of in excess of 150,000 intelligent Roma children subjected to segregated educational denial. With corrupt institutions the constitution means nothing This situation, which stands as a monument to wholesale law breaking by member state governments and government institutions (in this case the Czech republic, Hungary and the Slovak republic educational systems) contravenes European law. The European Commission is on the record as knowing about this horrendous situation as far back as 1999 and knowingly failed to follow its mandate from the Council, in this specific but significant case, to ensure that these countries observe the Madrid conditions before the accession. The Madrid conditions required that as a minimum condition for accession, as a basis of trust, accession governments and their administrations should be observing European law. Why vote for the European Constitution? With such European institutional discrimination how can anyone hope that the European Constitutional assurances on individual freedoms and human rights mean anything at all? As long as the European Union fails to demand that these governments bring about the rapid termination of such a horrendous abuse, support for the Constitution will be weakened. A recent illustrated report on this issue by the European Committee on Romani Emancipation, "The European Constitution - a troubling example of how it will fail to uphold individual freedoms & human rights" has just been published and can be accessed in pdf format by clicking on the title.