ORIGINAL SENDER: European Roma Rights Center <errc@...>
September 16, 2004
Press Release
European Roma Rights Center
League of Human Rights
Life Together
IQ Roma Service
Clarifying Positions: Coercive Sterilisations of Romani Women in the Czech Republic
Recent days have seen an outbreak of interest on the part of media in the
Czech Republic about the theme of coercive sterilisations of Romani women
in the Czech Republic. The organisations named above therefore issue
herewith public comment on the problem of coercive sterilisations of Romani
women in the Czech Republic, and on measures taken by public authorities to
date to act on the issue, with the intent of clarifying positions.
From the 1970s until 1990, the Czechoslovak government sterilised Romani
women programmatically, as part of policies aimed at reducing the "high,
unhealthy" birth rate of Romani women. This policy was decried by the
Czechoslovak dissident initiative Charter 77, and documented extensively in
the late 1980s by dissidents Zbynek Andrs and Ruben Pellar. Human Rights
Watch addressed the issue in a comprehensive report published in 1992 on
the situation of Roma in Czechoslovakia, concluding that the practice had
ended in mid-1990. A number of cases of coercive sterilisations taking
place in 1990 or before then in the Czech part of the former Czechoslovakia
have also been recently documented by the ERRC. Criminal complaints filed
with Czech and Slovak prosecutors on behalf of sterilised Romani women in
each republic were dismissed in 1992 and 1993. No Romani woman sterilised
by Czechoslovak authorities has ever received justice or even public
recognition of the injustices to which they were systematically subjected
under Communism.
During 2003 and 2004, the ERRC and partner organisations in the Czech
Republic have undertaken a number of field missions to the Czech Republic
to determine whether practices of coercive sterilisation have continued
after 1990, and if they were ongoing to the present. The conclusions of
this research indicate that there is significant cause for concern that to
the present day, Romani women in the Czech Republic have been subjected to
coercive sterilisations, and that Romani women are at risk in the Czech
Republic of being subjected to sterilisation absent fully informed consent.
During the course of research, researchers found that Romani women have
been coercively sterilised in recent years in the Czech Republic. Cases
documented include:
* Cases in which consent has reportedly not been provided at all, in either
oral or written form, prior to the operation;
* Cases in which consent was secured during delivery or shortly before
delivery, during advanced stages of labour, i.e. in circumstances in which
the mother is in great pain and/or under intense stress;
* Cases in which consent appears to have been provided (i) on a mistaken
understanding of terminology used, (ii) after the provision of apparently
manipulative information and/or (iii) absent explanations of consequences
and/or possible side effects of sterilisation, or adequate information on
alternative methods of contraception;
* Cases in which officials put pressure on Romani women to undergo
sterilisation, including through the use of financial incentives or threats
to withhold social benefits;
* Cases in which explicit racial motive appears to have played a role
during doctor-patient consultations.
Officials in the Czech Republic have acknowledged privately (although not
yet publicly) to the ERRC that there is a serious problem of a lack of
patients rights culture in the Czech medical community.
Coercive sterilisation is a very serious form of human rights abuse.
Coercive sterilisation is a violation of the bodily integrity of the victim
and can cause severe psychological and emotional harm. In addition,
coercive sterilisation restricts or nullifies the ability of a woman to
bear children, and does so without her having been able to participate
fully in a decision of such evident import, the consequences of which are
in many cases irreversible. In June 2004, the UN Committee Against Torture
recommended to the Czech government that it "investigate claims of
involuntary sterilisations, using medical and personnel records, and urge
the complainants, to the extent possible, to assist in substantiating the
allegations".
The ERRC has presented concerns related to the coercive sterilisation of
Romani women in the Czech Republic to public authorities on a number of
occasions. Most recently, complaints filed on behalf ten victims of the
practice were filed with the Office of the Public Defender of Rights
("Ombudsman") last week by the ERRC and local counsel, acting with very
significant support by the League of Human Rights and the organisation Life
Together. The ten case filed are not the only cases of coercive
sterilization of Romani women in the Czech Republic of which we are aware.
They are rather ten cases in which a convergence of factors including but
not limited to the willingness of the victim to pursue legal measures under
present conditions, our independent assessment of the victim's ability to
endure difficult legal proceedings, as well as a number of other factors,
have converged to make formal complaints possible.
The ten cases presented to the Ombudsman require remedy without delay. In
order for justice to be done and to be seen to be done for all victims of
these practices however, we believe the nature of the issue is such that it
will ultimately require a law establishing (i) recognition that practices
of coercive sterilization have been prevalent in the Czech Republic; (ii)
procedures (including all relevant safeguards for the safety and privacy of
the complainant) specific to the issue of coercive sterilization, under
which victims of such practices may come forward and claim due
compensation. The organisations named above urge the Czech government to
undertake the following:
* Establish an independent commission of inquiry investigating the
allegations and complaints of coercive sterilisations. Thoroughly
investigate reported cases of coercive sterilisations, and make available -
and widely publicised procedures - for women who believe they may have been
abusively sterilised to report the issue. These procedures should ensure
privacy rights, as well as rights related to effective remedy. Provide
justice to all victims of coercive sterilisations, including those
coercively sterilised under Communism. Conduct ex officio investigations to
ascertain the full extent of coercive sterilisations in the post-Communist
period.
* Review the domestic legal order in the Czech Republic to ensure that it
is in harmony with international standards in the field of reproductive
rights and provides all necessary guarantees that the right of the patient
to full and informed consent to procedures undertaken by medical
practitioners is respected in all cases.
* Promote a culture of seeking full and informed consent for all relevant
medical procedures by providing extensive training to medical professionals
and other relevant stakeholders, as well as by conducting information
campaigns in relevant media.
* Undertake regular monitoring to ensure that all medical practitioners
seek to attain the highest possible standards of consent when undertaking
sterilisations and other invasive procedures.
For further information on the issues raised above, please contact:
Claude Cahn (ERRC): (++36 20) 98 36 445
Jiri Kopal (League for Human Rights): (++ 420) 60 87 19 535
Kumar Vishwanathan (Life Together): (++ 420) 77 77 60 191
Katarina Klamkova: (IQ Roma Sevice): (++ 420) 60 88 20 637
___________________
The European Roma Rights Center (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 Center, visit the ERRC website at http://www.errc.org.
European Roma Rights Center
1386 Budapest 62
P.O. Box 906/93
Hungary
Tel.: ++ (36 1) 413 2200
Fax: ++ (36 1) 413 2201
E-mail: office@...
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
602 00 Brno
Czech Republic
jkopal@...
www.llp.cz
Tel.: + 420 545 210 446
Fax: + 420 545 240 012
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: vzajemne.souziti@...
IQ Roma Service, based in Brno, Czech Republic, is a non-profit,
non-governmental organisation active in socially excluded Roma communities.
IQ Roma service provides community and social field work, free counseling
and law services together with employment support for Roma clients. It also
initiates social inclusion strategies for Roma and minority communities on
a local level.
IQ Roma Service
602 00 Brno
Czech Republic
iqrs@...
Tel.: ++ 420 5 492 41 250
Press Release
European Roma Rights Center
League of Human Rights
Life Together
IQ Roma Service
Clarifying Positions: Coercive Sterilisations of Romani Women in the Czech Republic
Recent days have seen an outbreak of interest on the part of media in the
Czech Republic about the theme of coercive sterilisations of Romani women
in the Czech Republic. The organisations named above therefore issue
herewith public comment on the problem of coercive sterilisations of Romani
women in the Czech Republic, and on measures taken by public authorities to
date to act on the issue, with the intent of clarifying positions.
From the 1970s until 1990, the Czechoslovak government sterilised Romani
women programmatically, as part of policies aimed at reducing the "high,
unhealthy" birth rate of Romani women. This policy was decried by the
Czechoslovak dissident initiative Charter 77, and documented extensively in
the late 1980s by dissidents Zbynek Andrs and Ruben Pellar. Human Rights
Watch addressed the issue in a comprehensive report published in 1992 on
the situation of Roma in Czechoslovakia, concluding that the practice had
ended in mid-1990. A number of cases of coercive sterilisations taking
place in 1990 or before then in the Czech part of the former Czechoslovakia
have also been recently documented by the ERRC. Criminal complaints filed
with Czech and Slovak prosecutors on behalf of sterilised Romani women in
each republic were dismissed in 1992 and 1993. No Romani woman sterilised
by Czechoslovak authorities has ever received justice or even public
recognition of the injustices to which they were systematically subjected
under Communism.
During 2003 and 2004, the ERRC and partner organisations in the Czech
Republic have undertaken a number of field missions to the Czech Republic
to determine whether practices of coercive sterilisation have continued
after 1990, and if they were ongoing to the present. The conclusions of
this research indicate that there is significant cause for concern that to
the present day, Romani women in the Czech Republic have been subjected to
coercive sterilisations, and that Romani women are at risk in the Czech
Republic of being subjected to sterilisation absent fully informed consent.
During the course of research, researchers found that Romani women have
been coercively sterilised in recent years in the Czech Republic. Cases
documented include:
* Cases in which consent has reportedly not been provided at all, in either
oral or written form, prior to the operation;
* Cases in which consent was secured during delivery or shortly before
delivery, during advanced stages of labour, i.e. in circumstances in which
the mother is in great pain and/or under intense stress;
* Cases in which consent appears to have been provided (i) on a mistaken
understanding of terminology used, (ii) after the provision of apparently
manipulative information and/or (iii) absent explanations of consequences
and/or possible side effects of sterilisation, or adequate information on
alternative methods of contraception;
* Cases in which officials put pressure on Romani women to undergo
sterilisation, including through the use of financial incentives or threats
to withhold social benefits;
* Cases in which explicit racial motive appears to have played a role
during doctor-patient consultations.
Officials in the Czech Republic have acknowledged privately (although not
yet publicly) to the ERRC that there is a serious problem of a lack of
patients rights culture in the Czech medical community.
Coercive sterilisation is a very serious form of human rights abuse.
Coercive sterilisation is a violation of the bodily integrity of the victim
and can cause severe psychological and emotional harm. In addition,
coercive sterilisation restricts or nullifies the ability of a woman to
bear children, and does so without her having been able to participate
fully in a decision of such evident import, the consequences of which are
in many cases irreversible. In June 2004, the UN Committee Against Torture
recommended to the Czech government that it "investigate claims of
involuntary sterilisations, using medical and personnel records, and urge
the complainants, to the extent possible, to assist in substantiating the
allegations".
The ERRC has presented concerns related to the coercive sterilisation of
Romani women in the Czech Republic to public authorities on a number of
occasions. Most recently, complaints filed on behalf ten victims of the
practice were filed with the Office of the Public Defender of Rights
("Ombudsman") last week by the ERRC and local counsel, acting with very
significant support by the League of Human Rights and the organisation Life
Together. The ten case filed are not the only cases of coercive
sterilization of Romani women in the Czech Republic of which we are aware.
They are rather ten cases in which a convergence of factors including but
not limited to the willingness of the victim to pursue legal measures under
present conditions, our independent assessment of the victim's ability to
endure difficult legal proceedings, as well as a number of other factors,
have converged to make formal complaints possible.
The ten cases presented to the Ombudsman require remedy without delay. In
order for justice to be done and to be seen to be done for all victims of
these practices however, we believe the nature of the issue is such that it
will ultimately require a law establishing (i) recognition that practices
of coercive sterilization have been prevalent in the Czech Republic; (ii)
procedures (including all relevant safeguards for the safety and privacy of
the complainant) specific to the issue of coercive sterilization, under
which victims of such practices may come forward and claim due
compensation. The organisations named above urge the Czech government to
undertake the following:
* Establish an independent commission of inquiry investigating the
allegations and complaints of coercive sterilisations. Thoroughly
investigate reported cases of coercive sterilisations, and make available -
and widely publicised procedures - for women who believe they may have been
abusively sterilised to report the issue. These procedures should ensure
privacy rights, as well as rights related to effective remedy. Provide
justice to all victims of coercive sterilisations, including those
coercively sterilised under Communism. Conduct ex officio investigations to
ascertain the full extent of coercive sterilisations in the post-Communist
period.
* Review the domestic legal order in the Czech Republic to ensure that it
is in harmony with international standards in the field of reproductive
rights and provides all necessary guarantees that the right of the patient
to full and informed consent to procedures undertaken by medical
practitioners is respected in all cases.
* Promote a culture of seeking full and informed consent for all relevant
medical procedures by providing extensive training to medical professionals
and other relevant stakeholders, as well as by conducting information
campaigns in relevant media.
* Undertake regular monitoring to ensure that all medical practitioners
seek to attain the highest possible standards of consent when undertaking
sterilisations and other invasive procedures.
For further information on the issues raised above, please contact:
Claude Cahn (ERRC): (++36 20) 98 36 445
Jiri Kopal (League for Human Rights): (++ 420) 60 87 19 535
Kumar Vishwanathan (Life Together): (++ 420) 77 77 60 191
Katarina Klamkova: (IQ Roma Sevice): (++ 420) 60 88 20 637
___________________
The European Roma Rights Center (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 Center, visit the ERRC website at http://www.errc.org.
European Roma Rights Center
1386 Budapest 62
P.O. Box 906/93
Hungary
Tel.: ++ (36 1) 413 2200
Fax: ++ (36 1) 413 2201
E-mail: office@...
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
602 00 Brno
Czech Republic
jkopal@...
www.llp.cz
Tel.: + 420 545 210 446
Fax: + 420 545 240 012
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: vzajemne.souziti@...
IQ Roma Service, based in Brno, Czech Republic, is a non-profit,
non-governmental organisation active in socially excluded Roma communities.
IQ Roma service provides community and social field work, free counseling
and law services together with employment support for Roma clients. It also
initiates social inclusion strategies for Roma and minority communities on
a local level.
IQ Roma Service
602 00 Brno
Czech Republic
iqrs@...
Tel.: ++ 420 5 492 41 250
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