A Slovak-Czech-Hungarian film The Spring is coming to Slovak cinemas. The film explores the issue of the sterilisation of Romani women in former Czechoslovakia in the 1980s.

The topic of forced sterilisation of Romani women deserves public attention as well as artistic treatment. It represents one of the most serious chapters of human rights violations in Slovakia, the consequences of which many women continue to endure to this day.

At the Centre, we have been working on this issue since 2001. We have documented more than 140 cases, represented affected women before Slovak courts and the European Court of Human Rights, and have long advocated for their compensation.

However, after viewing the film The Spring, we believe that it has not fulfilled the responsibility that this subject requires. Although the film draws attention to the existence of forced sterilisation, in our view it does not provide sufficient context to show that these were not isolated individual failures, but rather the result of state policy, discrimination, and the long-term disregard for the rights of Romani women.

The stories of unlawfully sterilised women are not merely a subject for artistic interpretation. They are the stories of real women whose bodily integrity, dignity, and reproductive rights were violated. Portraying these experiences requires respect, sensitivity, and a thorough understanding of the historical context.

We believe that the public discussion surrounding the film should also be a discussion about the women who survived these violations, about the mechanisms of power and discrimination that enabled them, and about the justice that has still not been fully delivered to them in Slovakia.

Our aim is not to reject artistic engagement with this topic. On the contrary, we welcome responsible efforts to open this chapter of our history to public discussion. However, the women themselves, their experiences, and the need for remedy must remain at the centre.

You can find our full statement here.