In August 2011, the Center for Reproductive Rights and its
partners filed an amicus brief to the European Court of Human Rights in support
of Joëlle Gauer and Others —five women with mental disabilities in France who
were forcibly sterilized—arguing that forced sterilization constitutes a
violation of the European Convention on Human Rights. 

Case filed: August
16, 2011

State: France

Plaintiff(s): Joëlle
Gauer and Others

Center
Attorney(s): Adriana
Lamačková, Sofia Khan

Co-Counsel/Cooperating
Attorneys: European
Disability Forum, International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights
(INTERIGHTS), International Disability Alliance, and Mental Disability Advocacy
Center

Summary: This case involves five young women with mental
disabilities, living in France, who were forcibly sterilized between 1995 and
1998. The women  did not receive adequate
information about what sterilization implies and their consent to the procedure
was not required. Forced sterilization happens across the world and is a gross
violation of the women’s human rights.

In August 2011, the Center, the European Disability Forum,
the International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights (INTERIGHTS),
the International Disability Alliance, and the Mental Disability Advocacy
Center filed an amicus brief with the European Court of Human Rights asking the
Court to find a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights. The
jointly filed brief demonstrates that informed
consent is a critical component of any sterilization procedure and that it is a
violation of international human rights when sterilization is performed on
women with disabilities, a particularly vulnerable group, without their full
and informed consent. In particular, the brief argues that the women’s
rights to be free from torture and ill-treatment, to respect for private and
family life, to found a family, to a fair trial and not least to the right to
be free from discrimination on the basis of gender and disability were violated
(invoking Articles 3, 6, 8, 12, and 14 of the European Convention on Human
Rights).