Sexual and reproductive rights

What are sexual and reproductive rights

The sexual and reproductive rights of every woman and girl include in particular:

the right to family planning, the right to decide freely whether or when to have children based on an informed decision;
the right to health care and health protection during a pregnancy and during delivery;
the right to complete care of children;
the right to prevention and treatment of sexually transmissible diseases including HIV/AIDS;
the right to be free from violence against women and the right to be free from sexual harassment;
the right to abortion, health care and health protection after an abortion;
the right to access to education and correct information related to sexual and reproductive health.

Sexual and reproductive rights belong to basic human rights of women. They also are integral part of other basic human rights

Our work

In our work, we have been devoted to an issue of sterilization of Roma women without their informed consent, to a segregation of Roma women in Obstetrics/Gynecology wards in hospitals and other violations of their rights in their access to healthcare.

In this field:

we conduct monitoring and research;
we provide legal advice, free of charge;
we provide, in specific cases, legal representation free of charge in court proceedings and other legal procedures with regard to their sbroader social impact, so-called ‘strategic litigation’;
we carry on court proceedings in cases of discrimination in area of health care of larger groups of individuals, so called ‘actio popularis’;
we carry out educational and publishing activities;
we advocate for systemic changes on the political level;
we provide information to international human rights organizations.

PROTECTION AGAINST REPRODUCTIVE AND SEXUAL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

In cases of violation of your sexual and reproductive rights while receiving healthcare, you can defend yourself by:

complaining directly to a healthcare provider, or to a hospital´s founder and to a management of a hospital;
appealing to the Health Care Surveillance Authority, in case of breach of duty of a healthcare provider while providing health care;
complaining to a health department of the relevant regional self governing body, for example:
- in cases you are denied access your medical record;
- in cases you are denied access to healthcare;
- in cases no information is provided to you about the healthcare provision;
filing a complaint to the relevant Police Department or to the Public Prosecution Office;
complaining to a relevant court.

HOW WE CAN SUPPORT YOU

At the Center for Civil and Human Rights, in this field, currently we are concerned particularly by a violation of the following women’s rights:

sterilization of women without their informed consent;
segregation of Roma women in Obstetrics/Gynecology wards of hospitals;
separate office hours for Roma women;
racial verbal or other attacks on women on the basis of their ethnicity during healthcare provision.

In these cases, we:

provide legal advice, free of charge – with possibility of drafting a complaint/claim to the relevant institutions;
provide, in specific cases, legal representation free of charge in a court proceeding.

OUR ACHIEVEMENTS

in 2003, we documented a longtime practice of forced and coerced sterilization of Roma women without their consent or informed consent in Slovakia and published a report Body and Soul;
we achieved a positive amendment of a domestic health care legislation concerning the sterilization and access to a medical record and a notion of “ informed consent”, which until then was not revised in the Slovak legislation;
in 2009, we won a case K.H. and Others vs. Slovakia at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasburg on behalf of eight aggrieved Roma women who were denied access to their medical record – it was the first decision of the European Court concerning the access to the medical record, where the court established standards to be applied in each member state of the Council of Europe and awarded damages to each woman;
on a regular basis, we provided information concerning a practice of forced and coerced sterilizations of Roma women to the International human rights institutions of the UN or/and the Council of Europe;
on behalf of the sterilized Roma women, we filed complaints against hospitals and the Slovak government with the Slovak courts and with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg;
we achieved a positive decision by the Slovak courts in favor of forcibly sterilized Roma women, including an award of financial compensation;
in 2011, we achieved the first landmark decision concerning this practice, V.C. vs. Slovakia at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasburg on behalf of forcibly sterilized Roma woman, where the court established a responsibility of the Slovak government for violation of human rights of the affected woman;
in 2012, we were successful, at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasburg in other cases of forced sterilizations of Roma women without their informed consent, N.B. vs. Slovakia a I.G. and Others vs. Slovakia, where the court established again a responsibility of the Slovak government for violations;
in 2021 the Slovak governement apologized to all forcibly sterilized women, as a result of our almost 20 years advocacy efforts, next step must be their compensation.