On 27 February 2024, the National Council of the Slovak republic (Parliament) voted in the first reading on the law proposal aimed at ensuring effective access to justice for women who have been forcibly sterilised in the past. In our NGO Poradňa, we have been advocating for the adoption of such a law for many years. The practice of forced sterilisartions largely impacted particularly Roma women.

Unfortunately, the Parliament did not approve the proposal. MPs of the opposition parties supported the poposal. MPs of the coalition parties abstained. As a result, the proposal was still a few votes short of approval in the first reading.

We would particularly like to thank the presenters of the proposal for their initiative – MPs Petr Pollak, Anežka Škopová, Lukáš Bužo and Viliam Tankó.

The international legislation continues to oblige the responsible public authorities in Slovakia to effectively compensate forcibly sterilised women. It is therefore imperative that the compensation law proposal be reintroduced in Parliament in the future and ultimately passed.

We will continue to advocate for this in Poradňa.