Is Czech compensation for forced sterilizations in sight?

Regular readers of Romano vod'i and the Romea.cz news server will be aware that women who have been sterilized without their informed choice and consent, many of them Romani, have been fighting since 2005 for the Czech state to compensate them. This year has seen them come closer to that goal than ever before.
A bill currently exists in the lower house that would institute a procedure through which to make such claims for compensation. It has been waiting for a first reading for more than a year, and to remind lawmakers of its importance, the small coalition of volunteers who have been advocating for its adoption recently organized an open letter and petition that garnered a great deal of support, especially from those who care about how human rights are upheld here in the Czech Republic. The Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe contacted the Czech legislature to reiterate support for these women being compensated as well. By the time this commentary is published we will know whether that effort has succeeded or experienced yet another setback.
The women themselves have been a crucial part of this advocacy, demonstrating in September outside of a hospital in Ostrava, presenting the petition to Czech MP Helena Válková (ANO) in Prague, and later visiting Czech Finance Minister Alena Schillerová (ANO) to explain their situations to her and ask for her support, which they received. They have also been sending letters to various lawmakers and to the Prime Minister seeking his support as well, to which they have received positive responses.
Of course, those of us in civil society are not privy to the discussions within the various parties regarding how they plan to approach this bill as an issue, politically. The media has not yet seen fit to investigate that question, probably because the COVID-19 pandemic is literally depriving not just other issues, but our fellow human beings, of oxygen here.
The fact is that most of the victims of these human rights abuses fall into the category of those older people who are most at risk during these unprecedented times, which makes it all the more imperative that the bill be passed as soon as possible, before any more victims pass away without ever getting justice. Even if this law were to pass in record time, it will also take time to institute the procedure itself.
More disturbingly, some of the women involved in seeking compensation for having been sterilized without their informed choice and consent in the past have recently reported to us that they have heard of even more recent instances of forced sterilization among members of their extended families. If those alleging such treatment manage to secure legal representation and sue before the statute of limitations elapses in their cases (three years) we may yet see this issue ruled on again by the Czech courts. The bigger question, of course, is whether this serious human rights abuse has once again been committed and if so, what is the medical profession going to do about that?
Those who are interested in the history of how such human rights abuses came to be committed throughout the former Czechoslovakia and present-day Czech Republic and Slovakia can look forward to a special edition of Romano džaniben dedicated to this issue, slated to be released by the end of this strangest of years. In the meantime, it is very important that we continue to press for redress for all the victims as a matter of priority. When a wrong is committed, there must be clear acknowledgment of that wrong and redress for it must be made. That is the most important part of the justice these women are seeking.
Don't miss:
- Gwendolyn Albert: "I believe the illegally sterilized women will be compensated"
- Commemoration at WWII-era concentration camp for Roma in Czech Republic to give Award for Humanity to Gwendolyn Albert
- Czech Deputy Public Defender of Rights: I hope the law to compensate victims of forced sterilization will soon be adopted
- Forced sterilizations in Europe and the USA and their consequences for today
- Czech state may finally compensate forced sterilization victims
- Elena Gorolová: Some of the forced sterilization victims have died, but we are still fighting for compensation
- Elena Gorolová, who campaigns for compensation for forced sterilization, featured on Czech talk show
- Commentary: Czech Republic, Slovakia must compensate the victims of forced sterilization while they are still alive
- ROMEA to Czech President: Romani life in communist Czechoslovakia included forced assimilation, forced sterilization of women, segregated education
- Czech PM meets with forced sterilization victims and their representatives about compensation
- Czech Republic: Forced sterilization will be focus of academic and public discussions
- Czech and Slovak Victims of Coercive Sterilization Await Justice
- Czech researcher at Romani genocide commemoration: Compensate the victims of illegal sterilizations
- Gwendolyn Albert: Is impunity ending for ethnic discrimination in the Czech schools?
- Report on the coerced sterilization of Romani women in the Czech Republic describes last 50 years through testimony
- UN Human Rights Committee asks Slovak Government for independent body to investigate the forced sterilizations of Romani women
- Czech Govt Roma Council reviews Romani Holocaust sites, victim database, and compensation for involuntary sterilizations
- Analysis: Swiss Parliament approves law on "solidarity aid" to victims of forced sterilization
- Elena Gorolová on forced sterilizations: We seek compensation, nobody will ever restore our motherhood
- Czech Republic: Romani women forced to undergo sterilization tell their stories through theater
- OSCE/ODIHR Event to Focus on Justice and Redress to Roma Victims of Forced Sterilization in the Czech Republic
- Gwendolyn Albert: The long train ride to justice for forcibly sterilized women
- Gwendolyn Albert: Pigs to stay on Roma Holocaust site, Czech Govt won’t invest in human dignity
Related articles:
- Czech Finance Minister supports bill to compensate illegally sterilized women
- Gwendolyn Albert: "I believe the illegally sterilized women will be compensated"
- Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights calls on Czech lower house to adopt law to compensate illegally sterilized people, first reading scheduled for today
- Petition seeking first reading for bill to compensate forcibly sterilized women delivered to Czech lower house
- Czech Education Ministry wants to end funding for assistants to thousands of disabled children, expert says this will ruin inclusive education
- Romani women call on Czech MPs to take the first step toward compensating forcibly, illegally sterilized persons, 150 figures support them
- VIDEO: Commemoration at former concentration camp in Czech Republic remembers Romani victims of Auschwitz, Human Rights Commissioner expresses support for a Romani Commissioner
- Slovak court compensates illegally sterilized Romani woman after 15 years
- Czech Govt Roma Council recommends analyzing interwar assets of Roma and Sinti confiscated during the war, a still-unresolved matter
- Czech Government adopts neutral position on bill to compensate women who were illegally sterilized
- Czech MPs draft bill to compensate women who have been forcibly sterilized
- Slovak Constitutional Court awards compensation to Roma for 13-year court case - but the discrimination sued over still has no final ruling
Tags:
forced sterilization, novela, odškodnění, RV 11/2020HEADLINE NEWS
