Czech PM meets with forced sterilization victims and their representatives about compensation

A press release from the Czech human rights organization League of Human Rights reports that on Tuesday, 21 August, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš met with the victims of forced sterilization who have been attempting to reopen the subject of compensation for their illegal treatment. The PM expressed support for their efforts and has tasked Czech Justice Minister Jan Kněžínek with negotiating the matter further.

The meeting was initiated by former Czech Human Rights Commissioner Monika Šimůnková and followed a similar meeting with Czech Health Minister Adam Vojtěch. The subject of both meetings was primarily the explanatory material for the ultimately never-adopted 2015 bill to compensate women who have been forcibly sterilized, material considered problematic by representatives of the victims who believe that it overestimated the number of victims seeking compensation.

"Our qualified estimate of the number of applicants who will succeed in claiming compensation is 400 compared to the original number [in the Government material] of approximately 7 000. The overall cost [of compensation] therefore should not exceed CZK 120 million [EUR 4.7 million]," said Ladislav Zamboj of the Counseling Center for Citizenship.

The discussion also reviewed the impossibility for most victims of accessing justice through the Czech courts, including the established case law of the European Court of Human Rights, which was presented to the PM by Sandra Pašková of the League of Human Rights and by Deputy Minister for Legislation in Health Care Radek Policar. The PM also heard direct personal testimony about these harms from Elena Gorolová, herself a survivor of this abuse who has long been fighting for the rights of forcibly sterilized women, and from Radka Hančilová, who was sterilized without her consent by a hospital in Kladno at the age of 20 during the birth of her second child.