Council of Europe calls for progress on women's sexual and reproductive rights, including redress of forced sterilization by Czech Republic

“Women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights are human rights. Regrettably, however, women in Europe still have these rights denied or restricted as a result of laws, policies and practices that ultimately reflect continuing gender stereotypes and inequalities," Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muižnieks said today while releasing a new report on this topic, "Women's sexual and reproductive health rights in Europe".
The Czech Republic and Slovakia are specifically mentioned in the report as European countries where Romani women have been coercively and forcibly sterilized. The report calls on states to "prevent, redress and sanction all coercive sexual and reproductive health care practices, such as the forcible restraint of women in labour or during gynecological examinations, forced sterilization, forced contraception, forced abortion, non-consensual interventions during childbirth and the suturing of related injuries without adequate pain relief."
With respect to Romani women's efforts to access justice, the report notes that while a small number of individual women have obtained compensation "following arduous litigation over many years, most Roma women who were forcibly sterilised have been unable to obtain redress." States are obligated to eliminate coercive sexual and reproductive health care practices resulting in physical and psychological suffering, such as forced and coercive sterilisation, forced abortion, and a wide range of coercive interventions often carried out in the course of childbirth without women’s informed consent.
Redress for women who have been forcibly sterilized is also a recommendation made to the Czech Republic by the United Nations' recent Universal Periodic Review process. The Czech Republic has been called up on to "revise its position" on providing compensation to women who have been forcibly sterilized and to "properly recognize and provide just restitution for their suffering."
The international community's human rights oversight mechanisms have found that a wide variety of constraints on women’s sexual and reproductive health and autonomy are violating women’s rights to privacy in Europe. These include forced and coercive sterilisation; severe legal restrictions and failures to enable women’s access to legal reproductive health care services; barriers in access to prenatal testing; failures to safeguard women’s confidentiality, personal and physical integrity, and autonomy in the course of childbirth; deficits in legal certainty regarding women’s ability to give birth at home; and judicial reliance on harmful stereotypes regarding women’s sexuality.
The Czech state has been repeatedly urged by both domestic and international human rights authorities to establish an effective mechanism of comprehensive reparation and compensation for victims of forced or non-consensual sterilization. This would involve extending the three-year time limit for bringing compensation claims in cases of coercive or non-consensual sterilizations.
In 2015 the country seemed about to make progress in establishing a complaints and prevention mechanism for the forced sterilization of women, including reparation measures for such victims, but the Government failed to propose the necessary legislation. The UPR process has urged the Czech Republic to give these women access to justice and adequate compensation independently of the date of their sterilization, their ethnic origin, their nationality or their age.
"States must acknowledge and address these violations and resolutely commit to advancing gender equality in this crucial sphere of life”, the Commissioner said. The document reviews states’ obligations under European and international human rights standards in the field of women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights.
European states must address particular shortcomings when it comes to fully protecting the rights of women to life, health, privacy and non-discrimination, as well as the right to be free from torture and ill-treatment, with a particular focus on comprehensive sexuality education, modern contraception, safe and legal reproductive health care, and quality maternal health care. The Commissioner sets forth 40 recommendations aimed at helping European states address the pressing needs to:
· renew political commitment to women’s rights and guard against retrogressive measures that undermine women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights;
· establish health systems that uphold and advance women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights;
· ensure the provision of comprehensive sexuality education;
· guarantee the affordability, availability and accessibility of modern contraception;
· ensure all women’s access to safe and legal abortion care, and ensure that refusals of care by health care workers on grounds of conscience or religion do not endanger women’s timely access to sexual and reproductive health care;
· respect and protect women’s human rights in childbirth and guarantee all women’s access to quality maternal health
· eliminate coercive practices and safeguard women’s informed consent and decision-making in sexual and reproductive health care contexts;
· ensure all women’s access to effective remedies for violations of their sexual and reproductive rights;
· eliminate discrimination in laws, policies and practices and guarantee equality for all women in the enjoyment of sexual and reproductive health and rights.
“Sexual and reproductive rights protect some of the most significant and intimate aspects of our lives. Ensuring these rights for women is a vital component of efforts to achieve women’s rights and gender equality," Commissioner Muižnieks said.
"Given the resurgent trends seeking to roll back protections in this field, we must ensure that we remain committed to these rights, which were established only after a long struggle. States have the duty to provide all women with accessible, affordable, good quality sexual and reproductive health care and services”, he said.
Don't miss:
- UN tells Czech Republic to improve Romani integration, compensate illegally sterilized women
- UN Human Rights Regional Office for Europe welcomes Czech Govt genocide site buyout, calls for illegally sterilized women to be compensated
- Czech researcher at Romani genocide commemoration: Compensate the victims of illegal sterilizations
- Czech NGOs report to UN that Government refuses to compensate women sterilized without informed consent
- 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
- UN Committee tells Czech Republic: Compensate victims of forced sterilization and punish those responsible
- Czech Government to answer questions about illegal sterilizations, mostly of Romani women, from UN Committee tomorrow
- Marek Szilvási: Czech Government should stop gambling with the country's reputation - the fight for compensation for forced sterilization is not over
- Slovakia internationally criticized for forced sterilization, police impunity for brutality against Roma, position on refugee reception and segregated education
- Gwendolyn Albert: The long train ride to justice for forcibly sterilized women
- Compensation for victims of forced sterilization raised at OSCE event on Roma
Related articles:
- Romanian court hands down a scandalous decision: Roma woman who was beaten up by a minibus driver has to pay a fine
- German MEP of Romani origin Romeo Franz: The situation for Roma in Ukraine is shocking, I could not believe Roma live in such conditions in Europe
- Slovak NGO will appeal after court rules it is not discriminatory for hospitals to segregate Romani women away from non-Romani women
- International Roma Contact Group: OSCE states must treat Roma refugees from Ukraine equally and Ukraine must treat internally displaced Roma like other IDPs
- CNN: Czech Republic has discriminated against Romani refugees from Ukraine, updated data refute the myth that they all hold dual citizenship
- Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović on the occasion of Roma Holocaust Memorial Day: We must ensure the protection of the human rights of Romani people
- Czech research finds one-third of Romani refugees from Ukraine have experienced discrimination here, most children are not in education, dual citizenship has not been "abused" by them
- Czech project focuses on health in socially excluded localities, Romani men live an average of 57 years and Romani women, 65
- Czech volunteers say second-largest city has broken its agreement by closing camp used by Romani refugees from Ukraine near Grand Hotel
- New handbook describes how to intervene against daily hatred and racism in the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands
- Czech foundation established by Olga Havlová recalls what she honored while she lived: Freedom, justice, and respect for others
- Ukrainians are not the same as Syrians: On double standards for refugees, Czech aid, and breaking the rules while doing good
Tags:
Commissioner, Council of Europe, Czech Republic, Discrimination, forced sterilization, Hospital, human rights, Nils Muižnieks, report, Roma, Romani women, SterilisationHEADLINE NEWS
