MINELRES: Coercive Sterilisation of Romani Women in the Czech Republic: Groundbreaking Document Recognises "Problem" and Calls for Far-Reaching Changes to Law, Policy and Society
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Wed Jan 11 10:50:45 2006
Original sender: European Roma Rights Centre <[email protected]>
Groundbreaking Document Recognises "Problem" and Calls for Far-Reaching Changes
to Law, Policy and Society
Brno, Prague, Budapest, Ostrava, 11 January 2006. Civil society organisations
today welcomed a report published by the Czech Public Defender of Rights
("Ombudsman") on investigations into allegations of the coercive sterilisation
of Romani women in the Czech Republic.
The report is the result of more than a year of research by the Ombudsman and
his staff, on the basis of complaints brought by 87 women. It followed
discussions between the Ombudsman and the European Roma Rights Centre
(Budapest), the League of Human Rights (Prague/Brno), Life Together (Ostrava)
and the Group of Women Harmed by Sterilisation (Ostrava). The report was
finalised on 23 December 2005, and has been made public this week.
The report concludes that "The Ombudsman is convinced that in the Czech
Republic, the problem of sexual sterilization -- carried out either with
unacceptable motivation or illegally -- exists, and that Czech society stands
before the task of coming to grips with this reality." Measures undertaken by
the Czech Ministry of Health are seen as to date grossly inadequate.
Three areas of recommendations are brought by the Ombudsman:
1) Changes to Czech domestic law to better anchor the principle of informed
consent in these areas;
2) Supplementary measures to ensure a change of culture with regard to informed
consent in the medical community, as well as among users;
3) A simplified procedure for compensation to victims, where social workers
have been involved in implementing coercive sterilisation policy.
Pages 25-59 (i.e., approximately 1/3 of the report in total)
concern "Sterilization and the Romani Community" and reach the conclusion of
racial targeting. Case summaries included in the report highlight events in
which, for example, the medical files reveal that social workers and doctors
recommended caesarean section births in order to manufacture "indicators"
through which sterilisation would appear legitimate and necessary.
The text of the report also includes detailed summaries of Czechoslovak state
policies toward Roma in the 1970s and 1980s, in which social workers were
enlisted in the task of controlling the Romani birth-rate -- regarded as too
high by policy-makers -- and creating a culture of invasive control over Romani
families which endures to today. The report also includes a separate section on
the history of eugenics in Czechoslovakia, which the report's authors evidently
regard as key for the policies and practices detailed in the report.
The report is not yet available in English, but the original Czech version can
be downloaded at: http://www.ochrance.cz/documents/doc1135861291.pdf
Further information is available at: http://www.errc.org/cikk.php?cikk=2228
Contacts:
Michaela Tomisova (legal representative of the victims): ++ 420 73 795 13 23
Kumar Vishwanathan, (Life Together): ++ 420 77 77 60 191
Jiri Kopal (League of Human Rights): ++ 420 60 87 19 535
Claude Cahn (ERRC): ++ 36 20 98 36 445
__________________
The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) is an international public interest law
organization engaging in a range of activities aimed at combating anti-Romani
racism and human rights abuse of Roma, in particular strategic litigation,
international advocacy, research and policy development, and training of Romani
activists. For more information about the European Roma Rights Centre, visit
the ERRC website at http://www.errc.org.
European Roma Rights Centre
1386 Budapest 62
P.O. Box 906/93
Hungary
Tel.: ++ (36 1) 413 2200
Fax: ++ (36 1) 413 2201
E-mail: [email protected]
The League of Human Rights is a non-governmental organisation providing free
legal and psychological assistance to victims of gross human rights violations,
in particular to members of the Roma minority, victims of domestic violence and
children. Its mission is to create a future in which the Czech state actively
protects the human rights of its citizenry and respects both the spirit and the
letter of the international human rights conventions to which it is signatory.
League of Human Rights
Bratislavska 31
602 00 Brno
Czech Republic
[email protected]
www.llp.cz
Tel.: + 420 545 210 446
Fax: + 420 545 240 012
Life Together is a Czech Romani organisation fighting social exclusion and
marginalisation in the Ostrava region of the Czech Republic, as well as
strengthening Czech-Roma mutual confidence and co-operation.
Life Together
30. Dubna 3
Ostrava 70200
Czech Republic
Tel: ++ 420 77 77 60 191
E-mail:
[email protected]
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