For almost 20 years, we in the Center for Civil and Human Rights (Poradňa) have been supporting the activism of a group of Roma women. Together, we are pushing for the Slovak Government to finally acknowledge responsibility for the practice of illegal sterilization in Slovakia and to adopt a mechanism that will enable the compensation of all injured women.

This video was created at our joint meeting on July 9-11, 2021 in Košice and captures the testimonies of several illegally sterilized Roma women and their efforts to obtain justice. At the meeting, we planned specific activities to ensure that illegally sterilized women were finally compensated. Two weeks later, two of the participating women spoke at a meeting of the Slovak Parliamentary Committee for Human Rights and National Minorities, which discussed this issue and supported the compensation of injured women through the adoption of a special law.

More about forced sterilizations:

In the years 2002 – 2003, our NGO, in cooperation with the Center for Reproductive Rights, documented cases of illegally sterilized women, which took place in hospitals in the former Czechoslovakia, and later in Slovakia. Sterilization was usually performed by caesarean section during childbirth, without their prior informed consent or any consent. Slovakia has still not come to terms with this serious violation of women’s rights, and illegally sterilized women are still awaiting justice. Our research report called Body and Soul, in which we documented illegal sterilizations is available here: https://www.poradna-prava.sk/sk/dokum…

More about the activism of the group of Roma women:

https://www.poradna-prava.sk/sk/aktua…

Video Author: Jan Varchola for Center for Civil and Human Righths – Poradna