MINELRES: ERRC: UN Presses Czech Republic on Coercive Sterilisation of Romani Women
[email protected]
[email protected]
Tue Sep 5 08:01:22 2006
Original sender: European Roma Rights Centre <[email protected]>
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
Recommends Urgent Government Action to End Coercive Sterilisation,
Including Changes to Law and Remedy to Victims
Budapest, Prague, 1 September 2006. The organisations European Roma
Rights Centre (ERRC), League of Human Rights, and Life Together today
welcomed the Concluding Comments of the United Nations Committee on
the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on the Czech
Republic's compliance with international law in the area of banning
discrimination against women, issued on 25 August 2006. The comments
followed the Committee's review of the Czech Republic at its 36th
session, held in August.
In its Comments, the Committee commended the Czech government for
several aspects of its work to combat discrimination against women.
However, it expressed serious concerns in a number of areas,
including on the problem of coercive sterilisation of Romani women by
Czech doctors.
On these matters, the Committee stated: "The Committee is
particularly concerned about the report, of December 2005, by the
Ombudsman (Public Defender) regarding uninformed and involuntary
sterilization of Roma women and the lack of urgent Government action
to implement the recommendations contained in the Ombudsman's report
and to adopt legislative changes on informed consent to sterilization
as well as to provide justice for victims of such acts undertaken
without consent."
The Committee urged the Czech government to "take urgent action to
implement the recommendations of the Ombudsman/Public Defender with
regard to involuntary or coercive sterilization, and adopt without
delay legislative changes with regard to sterilization."
The Committee further told the government that it should "provide
ongoing and mandatory training of medical professionals and social
workers on patients' rights" and "elaborate measures of compensation
to victims of involuntary or coercive sterilization" and "provide
redress to Roma women victims of involuntary or coercive
sterilization and prevent further involuntary or coercive
sterilizations."
Finally, the Committee requested that the Czech government "report on
the situation of Roma women pertaining to issue of coercive or
involuntary sterilization, in its next periodic report, including a
detailed assessment of the impact of measures taken and results
achieved".
The Committee also commented at length on the problems of multiple
discrimination against Romani women in various sectoral fields, as
well as on the inadequacy of Czech law banning discrimination. The
Committee also issued a number of recommendations in these and other
areas.
***
The full text of the CEDAW Committee's Concluding Comments is
available at:
http://www.llp.cz/subdomains/en/images/stories/files/czech_republic.recommendati
ons_by_cedaw.doc
In the run-up to the CEDAW review, NGO partners provided detailed
documentation to the UN CEDAW Committee in the form of an NGO Shadow
Report by the League of Human Rights, European Roma Rights Centre,
and Gender Studies. The report addresses a number of categories of
serious human rights abuses of women, including extreme forms of
abuse such as domestic violence and coercive sterilization, as well
as very problematic law, policy, and practice in a number of areas of
relevance to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women. The NGO Shadow Report is available at:
http://www.errc.org/cikk.php?cikk=2136
http://www.llp.cz/subdomains/en/index.php?
option=com_content&task=view&id=24&Itemid=14
The Czech Ombudsman's report on the coercive sterilization of Romani
women is available at:
http://www.ochrance.cz/en/dokumenty/dokument.php?doc=400
Contacts:
Gwendolyn Albert, Director, League of Human Rights, [email protected], +
420 777 621 227
Ostalinda Maya Ovalle, Women's Rights Officer, European Roma Rights
Centre, [email protected], +36 1 41 32 200, + 36 70 60 258 31
Kumar Vishwanathan, Director, Life Together,
[email protected], +420 77 77 601 91
_____________________________________________
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
Na Rybnicku 16
120 00, Praha 2
Czech Republic
tel: +420 224 816 765
fax +420 224 941 092
E-mail: [email protected]
www.llp.cz
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]
---------------------------------------------
This message was sent using Endymion MailMan.
http://www.endymion.com/products/mailman/ http://www.microlink.com/