Czech Govt tells UN that law to compensate forced sterilization will be ready in one year

The Czech Government is planning to submit a law to compensate the victims of illegal sterilizations by the end of 2015. It expects to have the outlines of the legislation ready by the end of this year.
The cabinet's statement was part of its response to complaints from the UN Human Rights Committee, which oversees implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Czech Government ministers are planning to discuss the text today.
The Committee criticizes the Czech Republic for discriminating against Romani people, for sending disproportionate numbers of Romani children to be educated as mentally disabled, for permitting the raising of pigs on the site of a former concentration camp at Lety by Písek, and for the use of cage beds in psychiatric treatment facilities. "The compensation law presumes there will be comprehensive compensation of the victims of illegal sterilizations and that their claims will be satisfied by the state. The victims will no longer have to bring civil lawsuits against the health care facilities where illegal sterilizations were performed," the Government writes in its response to the UN.
The Government adds that it is not responsible for the fact that victims have not brought their complaints before judges. Nevertheless, it wants to prepare the compensation law as a gesture of good will.
In 2004 the European Roma Rights Centre came forward with suspicions that women, primarily from the Romani community, were being forcibly sterilized in the Czech Republic. Dozens of women then contacted the ombud and some also turned to the courts.
The Czech Government's Committee against Torture recommended paying compensation to the victims in 2006. In 2009 Czech Human Rights Minister Michael Kocáb and Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer expressed regret for the illegal sterilizations.
The Czech Government Human Rights Council put forward its first motion to compensate the victims in 2007. The Council sent another such proposal at the start of 2012 to the cabinet of Prime Minister Petr Nečas (Civic Democrats - ODS).
Nečas did not review that motion before his government collapsed. According to estimates of the Czech Government's Committee against Torture, as many as 1 000 women could be entitled to compensation.
At least 59 women are already known of who could definitely be compensated. That is the number of cases the Czech Supreme State Prosecutor previously received from the ombud for prosecution but shelved, claiming the evidence was insufficient for a criminal prosecution.
On the basis of a proposal made several years ago, the victims could receive between CZK 300 000 and CZK 400 000 each according to the degree of the harm caused to their health or the degree to which the applicable regulations were violated at the time of the surgery. Women who were involuntarily subjected to sterilization between January 1972 and May 1991 are just some of those who would be entitled to compensation.
Such surgeries were performed, according to regulations in place at the time, "in the interests of a healthy population," and the authorities motivated women to undergo them by offering benefits of up to CZK 10 000, a practice that ended in 1991. If the compensation law is adopted, then women who were illegally sterilized after 1991 would also be compensated who have been unable to seek redress in civil court due to the expiration of a three-year statute of limitations in their cases.
The UN Human Rights Committee has also recommended that the Czech state increase its efforts to, for example, remove the industrial pig farm from the site in Lety by Písek where a concentration camp for Romani people once stood during the time of the Nazi Protectorate. The Government has responded that it intends to collaborate with its Inter-ministerial Commission on Roma Community Affairs "to seek steps to resolve the situation and options for closing the operation of the industrial pig farm."
According to the UN Human Rights Committee, Romani people in the Czech Republic face discrimination, suffer from high unemployment and poor access to housing, and see their children end up in the "practical schools" (previously the "special schools"). Members of the Committee believe the state should solve these problems as well, and the Government points out in its response that it is preparing a new Romani Integration Strategy that will apply until the year 2020.
The UN Human Rights Committee has also criticized the low representation of women in management positions and politics in the Czech Republic. It has called on political parties and the state to take steps to ensure a higher proportion of women are involved in decision-making.
Don't miss:
- Gwendolyn Albert: Seven UN agencies issue joint statement on stopping forced, coercive, and involuntary sterilization
- Czech Helsinki Committee, Human Rights Minister draft law to compensate forced sterilization victims
- Czech Gov't plans social housing law, redress for victims of illegal sterilizations
- Elena Gorolová: Illegal sterilization
- The sterilization of Roma women: a serious threat to the fundaments of a democratic society
- Czech Govt compensates another woman over illegal sterilization
- Slovak opposition wants to subsidize sterilizations of the poor
- Slovakia loses another forced sterilization case in Strasbourg
- As many as 1 000 women could be compensated for wrongful sterilizations in Czech Republic
- European Court for Human Rights condemns Slovakia for forced sterilization of Romani woman
- Leading international ob-gyn organization issues new ethical guidelines on sterilization
- Roma activists discuss Czech Police, forced sterilization with US Embassy representatives
- Roma women harmed by forced sterilization in Czech Republic welcome Council of Europe approach to the issue
- CEDAW: Czechs must report progress on forced sterilizations in two years
- Sterilization victims still denied justice in the Czech Republic
- Czech court awards two women compensation for illegal sterilizations
- Czech government expression of regret over forced sterilization of Roma women is historic but insufficient
- Czech government expresses regret for illegal sterilizations of Romani women
Related articles:
- Czech Police seem to prevent Romani refugees from disembarking at station, but say they just informed them there is no accommodation available in the country's second-largest city
- Czech Govt raises minimum levels of income baselines for benefit calculations this month by 10 %, still less than actual inflation
- Slovak Govt Plenipotentiary for Romani Communities Ján Hero: Census numbers do not reflect the actual number of Romani men and women here
- Andrea Bučková's time as Slovak Govt Plenipotentiary for Roma is over, new Plenipotentiary is Ján Hero
- Slovak Government apologizes for illegal sterilizations, lawyer and Plenipotentiary for the Romani Community say compensation must follow
- Czech Senate Committee on Social Policy recommends rejection of bill authorizing attachment of welfare benefits over local unpaid fines
- LGBT+ members of Romani communities were part of Prague Pride this year, activists introduced program to aid people experiencing multiple discrimination
- Assembly against discrimination and racism in Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic attended mostly by Romani people
- UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Don't deny racism, eliminate it!
- Czech authorities could levy hefty fines against authors of discriminatory classified ads saying Roma need not apply
- More Roma citizens of Romania attempting to cross from Mexico into the USA to seek asylum this year
- Czech town cancels commission for container housing as too costly - which local opposition politicians have argued all along
Tags:
Diskriminace, Politika, Romské ženy, sterilizace, Vláda, UNHEADLINE NEWS
