WUNRN

http://www.wunrn.com

 

CZECH REPUBLIC - ROMA WOMEN - FORCED STERILIZATIONS

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Council of Europe - Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg:

http://www.coe.int/t/commissioner/News/2011/110303CzechRepublic_en.asp

 

Czech Republic: Inclusion of Roma Should Be a Political Priority - 3/3/11

 

........The Commissioner welcomes the Czech government’s expression of regret in November 2009 for the unlawful sterilisations of women, mainly Roma, and calls for further action to provide adequate reparation to the victims of these gross human rights violations. “It is particularly unfair that women affected by this practice are presently without an effective remedy to obtain reparation, including compensation, a situation that should be urgently remedied in line with international standards”........
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2271

 

Czech Republic - Roma Women Harmed by Forced

Sterilization Welcome Council of Europe Statement

Ostrava, 18.3.2011 (ROMEA)

The following is a press release from the Group of Women Harmed by Forced Sterilization:

On 3 March 2011, the Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, Thomas Hammarberg, issued a report on the state of human rights in the Czech Republic. Commissioner Hammarberg called the state policy with respect to sterilizations until 1991 a gross systemic violation of human rights and called on the Czech Government to thoroughly investigate and redress it. He expressed the opinion that women who have been sterilized without their informed consent effectively have no option to sue for compensation in the Czech Republic.

Commissioner Hammarberg proposes the Czech Republic re-evaluate the length of the statute of limitations on these cases such that the time bar will be calculated not from the time of the surgery, but from the time when the women fully realized the ramifications of their sterilization. As a guideline for their compensation he proposes the Government refer to a 2005 UN document on Basic Principles and Recommendations for Victims of Gross Violations of Human Rights as well as to compensation mechanisms for the victims of forced sterilization in other countries.

The Ostrava Group of Women Harmed by Forced Sterilization welcomes Commissioner Hammarberg's report and humbly expresses its enthusiasm for it. The Group calls on the Czech Government to take steps to truly compensate the forced sterilization of women as per Commissioner Hammarberg's recommendations. Forced sterilization has deeply and permanently interfered with our family lives, our motherhood, our psyches, our health, our emotions and our womanhood.