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Historic Verdict: Court
Awards Compensation to a Romani Woman for Sterilization for the First Time
Ostrava, 12.10.2007,
17:05, (ROMEA/CTK)
Today the Regional
Court in Ostrava awarded compensation of CZK 500 000 to a 30-year-old Romani
woman, Iveta Červeňáková, for having been sterilized against her
will. Ostrava City Hospital is to pay the damages. Jana Koláčková of the
League of Human Rights informed Romea.cz of the decision. According to Kumar
Vishwanathan of the Vzájemné soužití (Life Together) civic association, this is
most likely the historically first case of compensation being awarded to a
woman who was sterilized against her will. Holubová was sterilized 10 years
ago. "She was not sufficiently informed and did not even learn she had had
such surgery until seven years later," Vishwanathan said.
The
Regional Court in Ostrava ruled that the woman, whom doctors sterilized without
her proper consent, is entitled to an apology and compensation for the physical
and psychological harm caused to her. Judge Otakar Pochmon said the surgery
performed on the mother of two, who has since then unsuccessfully attempted
artificial insemination four times, was irreversible. The illegal violation was
committed in July 1997 at the Ostrava City Hospital.
A review of
key moments and aspects in the cases of involuntary sterilisation of Romany
women in the Czech Republic |
September
13, 2004 - The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) presents its suspicion of
forced sterilisation of Czech Romany women. It says in some cases the women
did not give consent to their sterilisation or nodded only in an extreme
situation or when facing the threat of being stripped of social allowances.
Romany women were sterilised in the then Czechoslovakia in 1959-1990, the
studies said. |
September
17, 2004 - ERRC and three Czech NGOs call on the Czech government to
establish a commission to investigate the cases of forced sterilisation. The
commission was eventually founded at the Health Ministry. |
October 1,
2004 - Ombudsman Otakar Motejl confirms that he received first pieces of
information about ten women who had undergone sterilisation in 1991-2001 in
hospitals in North Moravia. Most of the cases reportedly happened in
1991-1997. About 80 women, mainly Romany, gradually turned to the ombudsman
with their complaints. |
March 4,
2005 - Helena Ferencikova sues a hospital in Ostrava, north Moravia, for
having performed involuntary sterilisation on her. The hospital dismissed the
accusation saying Ferencikova had consented to being sterilised. |
July 8,
2005 - Motejl says that cases of sterilisation of Romany women in the Czech
Republic occurred only rarely in the previous years. "I have no evidence
to support the assertion that programme sterilisation of Romany women was
applied in the Czech Republic," he said. |
November
11, 2005 - The Regional Court in Ostrava decides that the hospital has to
apologise to Ferencikova. However, it turns down her claim for compensation
worth one million crowns. |
January 6,
2006 - Motejl proposes that a bill be passed to enable compensation of
involuntarily sterilised women. Up to 58 women were unlawfully sterilised in
the past, Motejl said, adding, however, that racial discrimination was not
involved. He said the female patients' files lack documents such as the
patient's written request or a document proving that she had been informed
about sterilisation and its consequences. |
August 18,
2006 - Romany woman Elena Gorolova testifies in the U.N. headquarters that
doctors in an Ostrava hospital had sterilised her several years ago. She
conceded that she had given a written consent to the surgery, but said it was
performed on her without her proper knowledge. |
January 17,
2007 - The High Court in Olomouc, north Moravia, confirms that Ferencikova
has the right to the hospital's apology for forcing her into sterilisation.
Like the lower-level court, the Olomouc court rejected her claim for
financial compensation. The Ostrava-Vitkovice hospital management apologised
to her in March. |
May 28,
2007 - Sterilisation of women without their consent is a crime, a north
Bohemian state attorney's office concludes while checking two cases of
women's sterilisation in a local hospital. |
July 17,
2007 - The daily Lidove noviny writes that the people who underwent
involuntary sterilisation in the past could receive compensation of up to
200,000 crowns. The guidelines for compensating these people had been
completed by the Committee for Biomedicine and Human Rights, an advisory body
of the Government Council for Human Rights. The proposal would require the
government's approval, the paper wrote. |
October 12,
2007 - The Ostrava Regional Court rules that Iveta Cervenakova is eligible to
financial compensation worth 500,000 crowns for being involuntarily
sterilised by the Ostrava Municipal Hospital. The hospital defends itself
saying it has Cervenakova's written consent. |
The
hospital claims it has the patient's written consent on file and is considering
appealing to the High Court in Olomouc. "The management of City Hospital
is aware of today's verdict. We believe it necessary to wait for the written
verdict, and then we will consider the option of an appeal," the
spokesperson for the health care facility, Marie Dlabalová, told ČTK.
Dlabalová
also said the sterilization of women at Ostrava City Hospital had already been
investigated by a Czech Health Ministry commission and the ombudsman. "So
far criminal investigations were initiated in five cases, all of which were
shelved, since no crime was found to have been committed," she said.
On 7 July
1997 Ms Červeňáková (née Holubová) gave birth by Caesarian section to
her second child, Kristýna. She was sterilized during the same operation. Even
though it was known in advance that she would have to give birth by Caesarian,
the doctors did not follow the legal process for acquiring her consent to the
sterilization. The doctors did not ask for her "consent" until Ms
Červeňáková was under the influence of anaesthesia. At the time of
surgery she was 19 years old. "I didn't even know what it meant,"
Červeňáková told ČTK today. Moreover, just before giving birth
she had become one of the victims of the destructive floods in Ostrava that
year and had other worries besides giving birth to focus on, such as finding a place
to live after moving out of her flooded home.
Červeňáková
says that for seven years she was under the impression that she had merely been
given an IUD. When she visited the doctor to have it removed and told him she
wanted another child, she learned the truth. She and her husband are now
considering adoption. "I already have all the necessary forms to fill out.
I would like to have a little boy at home," the mother of two girls said.
Červeňáková's
lawyer, Michaela Kopalová of the League of Human Rights, says the hospital
procedure was rife with deficiencies. "The commission that was to decide
whether to permit the sterilization did not meet until 10 days after my client
gave birth. There is also no document that can prove she was ever made aware
that sterilization is irreversible," the lawyer said.
Commenting
on the verdict of the Ostrava Regional Court, Kopalová said: "This is the
fairest verdict to date ever issued in the Czech Republic concerning such a
violation by doctors of the physical integrity of a woman giving birth. I
believe the Czech courts will continue in the future to respect the case law of
the Supreme Court, according to which entitlement to monetary compensation in
cases of violation of personality rights is not subject to any statute of
limitations."
According
to the League of Human Rights, the amount awarded is just the first step
towards truly fair compensation for such serious violations of a woman's
rights. The doctors' arbitrary treatment of such women has forever deprived them
of the chance to have their own children. The amount awarded is exactly half
the amount originally sought. The first case of such illegal sterilization to
be handled by the Czech courts, that of Helena Ferenčíková, resulted in
the awarding of an apology but not financial compensation due to the expiration
of the statute of limitations. This case continues to await an appeal verdict
before the Supreme Court in Brno. In recent years the Supreme Court has ruled
that violations of personality rights are not subject to statutes of
limitations.
The
Červeňáková case is the second case of undesired sterilization to be
ruled on by the Ostrava Regional Court. In 2005 the court ruled that the management
of the Ostrava-Vítkovice hospital must send a letter of apology to Helena
Ferenčíková, who was 22 at the time of her sterilization, for an identical
rights violation. The court found she had not been sufficiently informed prior
to the sterilization. However, due to the statute of limitations, the court
refused to award the million crowns in damages sought by the Romani woman.
"According
to previous Supreme Court verdicts, entitlement to compensation for
non-monetary damages can no longer be subject to the statute of
limitations," Kopalová said. She added that today's verdict raises the
hope that financial satisfaction will also be awarded to Ferenčíková.
"I believe we will succeed when the case is returned to the Ostrava
Regional Court," she said.
The League
of Human Rights is making use of this opportunity to criticie the Czech
government, which has been at a loss to address this issue despite many urgent
recommendations by international human rights treaty monitoring bodies at the
UN to apologize to and compensate all women sterilized during the communist era
and during the 1990s. The League particularly considers recent remarks by Czech
Human Rights Minister Džamila Stehlíková, who has publicly doubted the
possibility of the government compensating women sterilized in violation of the
law, to be immeasurably regrettable.
The Czech
government is well aware that poorer citizens of the Czech Republic, including
the women who have been sterilized in this manner, do not have the financial
means to be represented before the courts by attorneys, and the state has not
invested any money into assisting the victims of past human rights violations.
The cases of Ms Ferenčíková and Ms Červeňáková, each of whom was
sterilized in a different hospital, are just the tip of the iceberg. As
confirmed by the Final Statement of the Public Defender of Rights, Otakar
Motejl, in December 2005, there have been a minimum of several dozens of
victims of such illegal sterilization in several regions throughout the country
. The Czech Republic is one of the last countries in Europe without a
comprehensive system of free legal aid. In the past, European countries such as
Germany, Norway and Sweden have awarded compensation to victims of such
sterilizations.
There are
other cases of unwanted sterilization in the Czech Republic. "I am
representing three women, but I know of approximately 90 others who turned to
the Public Defender of Rights," Kopalová said. In her opinion, doctors and
hospital representatives are giving the same arguments in all of the cases.
"They defend themselves by claiming that a third birth by Caesarian
section would pose a significant danger to the mother and that they are acting
in her best interests," she said.
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