Czech Republic - Group
of Women Harmed by Sterilization Exhibits Photos in the Czech Chamber of
Deputies
Ostrava, Praha – 1 December
2006
The grand opening of the exhibition
of photographs entitled The World through the Eyes
of Victims of Involuntary Sterilization
will take place on Monday 11 December at 16:00 in the atrium of the Chamber of
Deputies of the Czech Republic. The exhibit will take place
under the auspices of Czech Parliamentarian Kateřina Jacques with the financial
support of the Embassy of the United States of America.
The photographs capture the
immediate surroundings of the victims of involuntary sterilization as they
themselves perceive them. The purpose of the exhibit is to remind the public
that the photographers are not only women currently taking Czech hospitals to
court for performing sterilizations on them against their will, but primarily
people of flesh and blood whose lives are similar to ours, with one significant
difference – their physical and psychological integrity has been violated by
illegal medical interventions.
The collection of 21
photographs has already been on display in two towns in the Czech Republic, Brno, and
Ostrava.
Visitors to the Ostrava Town Library had the opportunity to see the exhibition
from 2-31 October 2006, and the Brno part of the
exhibition took place at the Museum of Roma
Culture from 17 August until the end of September
2006. It was opened on 17 August on the occasion of sterilisation survivor Elena
Gorolová’s presentation to the UN Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
After the successful
Brno and Ostrava
parts of the exhibition, the photographs are now coming to the Chamber of
Deputies of the Czech Republic. The aim is to remind Czech
politicians and legislators that the problem of involuntary sterilization
continues because high government officials have so far taken a dismissive
stance on the issue. This is happening despite the fact that the Public Defender
of Rights (the Ombudsman) clearly expressed his opinion on the matter in
December 2005: “The
Public Defender of Rights believes that the problem of sexual sterilisation
carried out in the Czech Republic, either with improper motivation or illegally,
exists, and that Czech society stands before the task of coming to terms with
this fact.”
Moreover, on 25 August 2006, CEDAW
recommended the Government of the Czech Republic urgently advance the
implementation of the Ombudsman’s recommendations concerning involuntary
sterilisation and enact legislative changes in this matter without delay. CEDAW also recommended the Czech
Government create mechanisms of redress for the victims of involuntary
sterilisation in order to compensate them and prevent the further occurrence of
involuntary sterilisation.
We thank the Museum of Roma Culture (www.rommuz.cz) for their kind loan of
frames for the photographs.
Editors:
The civic association
Vzájemné soužití (Life Together) is a registered Roma-Czech
non-governmental, non-profit organisation unaffiliated with any political party
which has been active in Ostrava since the floods in the
year
1997. Life Together advocates ending the social exclusion of members of the Roma
community in the Ostrava region and does its best to create
friendly platforms for interaction between the Roma and non-Roma communities.
Through the community work method, Life Together tries to improve the social and
living conditions of poor families in need. The association’s activities are
concentrated on the areas of humanitarian, educational, social and legal
counselling, and the issues of housing, employment conflict resolution and human
rights. The aim of the association is the strengthening of mutual trust and
cooperation. For more please see www.vzajemnesouziti.cz