Coercive Sterilisation of Romani Women in the
Czech Republic: Organisations Welcome Ombudsman Report
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: .
Further
information is available at:
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
2006-01-10
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