UN committee looks into enforced sterilization of Romany women
A United Nations committee on the elimination of discrimination against
women is looking into claims of enforced sterilization of Romany women in
a number of post communist states, the Czech Republic included. The
practice is said to have started in the communist days as a means of
"regulating" the Romany population, but human rights activists
fear that the practice did not end with the fall of communism.
The scandal over alleged illegal sterilization of Romany women broke out in
2004 when the European Roma Rights Centre in Budapest first published
information about it. Since then dozens of Czech Romany women have come
forward to tell their story, demanding an apology and financial
compensation.
Elena Gorolova from Ostrava testified before the UN committee in New York
last week, saying that she had signed an endorsement of sterilization
heavily sedated and had not been told what the procedure entailed. It was
her word against that of the official Czech government delegation which
was also asked to present a report - and which said that doctors had not
violated the law or medical ethics. In all cases they could produce
written consent from their patient and had allegedly explained what
sterilization meant.
Kumar Vishvanathan is actively involved in social work for the Roma,
mediating between them and the authorities:
"During the process of childbirth they were given a paper to sign
saying that they consent to a C-section and, at the same time, to
sterilization. In some cases the women were informed that they were going
to be sterilized and that they had to sign a paper and the women signed
it, but they didn't have any time to think over things, to discuss it with
their partners. Some of the women thought it was a temporary arrangement,
something like an intra-uterine device, that it was reversible. They never
thought in terms that they would never ever have any more children."
So where do these women stand legally - having signed an endorsement of
sterilization? A Czech court set a precedent last year when it ruled that
a hospital in Ostrava had violated medical ethics by not properly
informing Helena Ferencikova about her state of health and the proposed
sterilization. The court ruled that the hospital should apologize. Mrs.
Ferencikova said this was not enough and has appealed the verdict asking
for a million crowns in compensation.
"I am hoping we will win. Of course we expected them to fight tooth
and nail and it was clear they never meant to apologize. Both sides
appealed the verdict and we are now awaiting the second ruling - waiting
to see whether it will go in favour of them or us."
Women like Helena Ferencikova and Elena Gorolova are getting help from NGOs
such as Gender studies, an organization which supports women's rights.
A report from the Czech Ombudsman's office which carried out its own
investigation into the affair has also gone in their favour. The office
said it had collected sufficient evidence to suggest that at least 50
Romany women living in the Czech Republic - formerly in communist
Czechoslovakia - had been forcibly sterilized in the years between 1979
and 2001. The UN committee is expected to take a stand on the matter
within two to three weeks.
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"I am hoping we will win. Of course we expected them to fight tooth
and nail and it was clear they never meant to apologize. Both sides
appealed the verdict and we are now awaiting the second ruling - waiting
to see whether it will go in favour of them or us."
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