AWID Resource Net Friday File
Friday September 29, 2006

Czech Republic - Coercive Sterilisation of  Romani Women

An Enduring Violation of Women's Rights. 

By Rochelle Jones

Last month the Czech Republic's compliance with international human rights
law was reviewed by the UN Committee on the Elimination of all forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). One of the major issues under
scrutiny – thanks to a comprehensive NGO Shadow Report outlining forms of
abuse against women - was the coercive sterilisation of Romani women.
CEDAW's Concluding Comments expressed concern regarding "uninformed
and involuntary sterilization of Romani women and the lack of urgent
Government action to...adopt legislative changes on informed consent to
sterilization as well as to provide justice for victims"[1].

The Czech Republic has effectively ignored an independent Ombudsman Report
and testimony from 87 Romani women who have had their right to conceive a
child taken away, by refusing to provide compensation for, and in some
cases, refusing to acknowledge victims. One report outlines how:

"Katerina Jacques, ...director of the government's Human Rights and
Equal Opportunities department, said in an e-mail that she joined an
advisory board on Roma sterilization that the Health Ministry convened at
the request of [the Ombudsman]. She quickly grew frustrated, and said that
the board seemed to have an invisible wall between the medical view of the
problem and a legal or human rights view. She resigned in February, two
months after the release of the ombudsman's report, saying that her
colleagues on the board did not listen to her." [2]

What is the background to coercive sterilisation? Can this history inform
why Romani women in particular are subject to this specific form of overt
and callous discrimination?

TARGETED DISCRIMINATION

Coercive and forced sterilisation is a human rights violation and form of
discrimination – mostly with women as the target. Sterilisation has
historically taken place under the rubric of population control, personal
health and well-being of the victim, or eugenics programs to prevent what
was believed to be 'hereditary' mental illness and physical disability. The
difference between forced and coercive sterilisation is a thin line. Women
who are coerced into being sterilised by tubal ligation by medical and
social workers often are admitted to hospital or seek medical advice for a
condition completely unrelated to reproduction. These women are advised and
convinced that sterilisation would be positive for their well being, without
being made fully aware of the consequences of their decision. Other women
are provided with consent forms for sterilisation just minutes after they
deliver a child, or after they have undergone a caesarean - misled to
believe that it is a necessary and life-saving operation.

The coercive sterilisation of Romani women has been brought to the
forefront in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, but the act itself has been
taking place all over the world for a very long time. It is well
documented, for example, that women were forcibly sterilised in Germany
during the Holocaust, particularly women with physical disabilities or
mental illness. China also, is well known for its controversial One-Child
Policy, which has generated countless reports of forced sterilisations and
abortions.

The history of this human rights abuse is long, portrayed as innocuous, and
stretches across the globe. Government policies of sterilisation have been
implemented in Nazi Germany, the United States, Canada, the former Soviet
Union, Sweden, Peru, Mexico, Australia, Switzerland, Norway, Finland,
China, India, Slovakia and the Czech Republic - and this is not an
exhaustive list.

Race, class, gender and disability are inextricably entwined in these
sterilisation programs. Looking back on coercive sterilization programs
practiced in other countries reveals the disturbing trend that the victims
of such practices are usually poor women from minority groups suffering
multiple forms of discrimination across gender, race and  socio-economic
standing.

>From 1995-2000 in Peru, for example, "what was originally sold to
Peruvians as an altruistic program aimed at helping poor Peruvian women...
evolved into an orchestrated attempt to control reproduction and to meet a
goal of fewer Indian children in the countryside" [3]. In the United
States, the race discrimination element to their sterilisation programs is
evident in the statistics. For example, "as of 1982, fifteen percent
of white women had been sterilized, compared with twenty-four percent of
African-American women, thirty-five percent of Puerto Rican women, and
forty-two percent of Native American women. In the early 1970's, an
estimated 100,000 to 150,000 low-income individuals were annually subjected
to sterilization under federally funded programs." [4]

In Sweden it was revealed in 1997 that the government "imposed forced
sterilization for 40 years, a practice that ended only in 1976. During this
period, some 62,000 Swedes were sterilized in an effort to improve the
quality of the Swedish people. Those of mixed race, low intelligence or
with physical defects underwent forced sterilization by the state in order
to prevent such qualities from being passed on. However, there is evidence
that sterilization extended even to those who were merely rebellious,
promiscuous or did not fit in somehow" [5].

ENDURING LEGACY

In the Czech Republic, the European Roma Rights Centre and partner
organisations set out to "determine whether practices of coercive
sterilisation have continued after 1990", the year when a formal
government program of sterilisation ceased. They found that "there is
a significant cause for concern that until as recently as 2001, Romani
women in the Czech Republic have been subjected to coercive
sterilisations..." [6].

Like other groups discriminated against before them, Romani women form part
of a minority group. Their situation is unique, however, because Roma
populations are spread across Europe, with "multiple subgroups based
on language, history, culture and religion" [7]. Many Roma live in
conditions of poverty, unemployment and illiteracy, and women in particular
suffer multiple forms of discrimination from non-Roma communities, and
within their own communities. Theirs is both a struggle of race and gender
discrimination tangled together, with racial discrimination expressing
itself in gender-specific ways, such as coercive sterilisation.

With coercive sterilisation's long history of racism and gender
discrimination that cuts across continents, what lessons have been learned?
The overt targeted discrimination of eugenics programs has lessened over the
years with legislation being introduced against it in most countries thanks
to the tireless work of human rights organisations and the introduction of
an international human rights framework. However, as one author has
asserted, "national and ethnic consciousness in some European
countries has such deep roots that it may well take more than simply
legislation to get rid of it. Even as we try to expand the law's reach on
behalf of the Roma, we must of course acknowledge that law alone is not
sufficient" [8].

Sterilisation programs still active around the world now focus primarily on
people with mental illness - another hugely controversial terrain that
intersects with race, socio-economic status, and gender. Former member of
the Advisory Board on Roma sterilisation in the Czech Republic, Katerina
Jacques, suggests that this enduring legacy of rights violations is due to
"an invisible wall between the medical view of the problem and a legal
or human rights view" [9]. Any form of coercive sterilisation sits
squarely within a human rights context, and should be treated as such,
particularly because it has existed at the crossroads of gender and race
discrimination for such a long period of time.

The international human rights framework and global women's rights
movements are keenly aware of the compounding effects that racial
discrimination has on women.  The Beijing Declaration recognises and
articulates this. However, as Roma women's rights activists have found,
"the impact of gender and racial discrimination on women has not been
subject to detailed and in-depth consideration both at national and
international level" [10] and rights violations such as coercive
sterilisation are a symptom of this. Governments like the Czech Republic
are seemingly reluctant to acknowledge the impact that coercive
sterilisation has on women, and the race dimensions that lie behind it. In
the case of the Czech Republic, mechanisms like the CEDAW Committee are
critical in 'persuading' legislative and other reforms. As Roma communities
move further in to the "Decade of Roma Inclusion" - an initiative
launched by eight European countries in February 2005 – it is clear from
the past, however, that law isn't enough, and that publicity and
mobilisation are going to be key partners to legislative change in the
struggle for women's reproductive rights.

Notes:
[1] The League of Human Rights, 2006. UN Presses Czech Republic on Coercive
Sterilisation of Romani Women. September 4, 2006. Available from:
http://www.llp.cz/subdomains/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=155&Itemid=59

[2] Mindy Kay Bricker, 2006. Sterilization of Czech Gypsies Persists:
Eugenics Policy Dates back to Soviet Era. World Prout Assembly, June 12,
2006. Available from:
http://www.worldproutassembly.org/archives/2006/06/sterilization_o.html
[3] Stephen W. Mosher, 1998. In Peru, Women Lose the Right to Choose More
Children. Wall Street Journal, February 27, 1998. Available from:
http://www.arec.umd.edu/arec365/wsj022798.htm
[4] Michael Sullivan DeFine, 1997. A History of Governmentally coerced
Sterilization: The Plight of the Native American Woman. Native American
Political Issues. University of Maine School of Law. Available from:
http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/9118/mike2.html
[5] Bruce Bartlett, 1997. Eugenics in Socialist Sweden. National Center for
Policy Analysis, September 3, 1997. Available from:
http://www.ncpa.org/pi/internat/pdinter/pdint178.html
[6] Claude Cahn. Groundbreaking Report by Czech Ombudsman Recognises
"Problem" of Coercive Sterilisation and Calls for Far-Reaching
Changes to Law, Policy and Society". European Roma Rights Centre.
http://www.errc.org/cikk.php?cikk=2541&archiv=1
[7] Angela Kocze, cited in Les Penelopes. Double Discrimination Faced by
Romani Women in Europe. Available from:
http://www.penelopes.org/Anglais/xarticle.php3?id_article=713
[8] James A. Goldston. 2001. A future for Roma Rights? EU Monitoring and
Advocacy Program:
http://www.eumap.prg/journal/features/2001/nov/futureforoma
[9] Ibid Note 2.
[10] Ibid Note 6.

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