Skip to content
Center for Reproductive Rights
Center for Reproductive Rights

Primary Menu

  • About
    • Overview
    • Center Leadership & Staff
    • Pro Bono Program
    • Creative Council
    • Annual Reports
    • Contact Us
    • Careers
    • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
  • Work
    • Overview
    • Litigation
    • Legal Policy and Advocacy
    • Resources & Research
    • Recent Case Highlights
    • Landmark Cases
    • World’s Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
  • Issues
    • Overview
    • Abortion
    • Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
    • Assisted Reproduction
    • Contraception
    • Humanitarian Settings
    • Maternal Health
    • COVID-19
  • Regions
    • Overview
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Europe
    • Latin America and the Caribbean
    • United States
    • Global Advocacy
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Center in the Spotlight
    • Events
    • Press Releases
    • Press Room
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Resources & Research
    • World Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
  • Act
    • Overview
    • Give
    • Act
    • Learn
  • Donate
    • Make a Gift Now
    • Be a Champion
    • Join the Advocates Council
    • Become a Major Donor
    • Give Through Your Donor-Advised Fund
    • Make a Gift In Honor
    • Attend an Event
    • Leave a Legacy
    • More Ways to Give
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
Donate
icon-hamburger icon-magnifying-glass Donate
icon-magnifying-glass-teal

European Court of Human Rights Finds Slovakia violated Romani women’s rights in another involuntary sterilization case

Center for Reproductive Rights - Center for Reproductive Rights - search logo
search Close Close icon
Center for Reproductive Rights -
Menu Close Menu Close icon
Donate

Primary Menu

  • About
    • Overview
    • Center Leadership & Staff
    • Pro Bono Program
    • Creative Council
    • Annual Reports
    • Contact Us
    • Careers
    • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
  • Work
    • Overview
    • Litigation
    • Legal Policy and Advocacy
    • Resources & Research
    • Recent Case Highlights
    • Landmark Cases
    • World’s Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
  • Issues
    • Overview
    • Abortion
    • Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
    • Assisted Reproduction
    • Contraception
    • Humanitarian Settings
    • Maternal Health
    • COVID-19
  • Regions
    • Overview
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Europe
    • Latin America and the Caribbean
    • United States
    • Global Advocacy
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Center in the Spotlight
    • Events
    • Press Releases
    • Press Room
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Resources & Research
    • World Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
  • Act
    • Overview
    • Give
    • Act
    • Learn
  • Donate
    • Make a Gift Now
    • Be a Champion
    • Join the Advocates Council
    • Become a Major Donor
    • Give Through Your Donor-Advised Fund
    • Make a Gift In Honor
    • Attend an Event
    • Leave a Legacy
    • More Ways to Give
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn

Related Content

Issues:

Maternal Health, Coercive Policies

Regions:

Europe, Romania, Accountability Bodies, European Human Rights System

Work:

In the Courts

Case Archive

For updates on Center cases, explore our case archive here.

Follow the Center

Donate Now

Join Now

11.13.2012

In the Courts Maternal Health Europe

European Court of Human Rights Finds Slovakia violated Romani women’s rights in another involuntary sterilization case

Justin Goldberg

Share this Story

  • facebook
  • Twitter
  • linkedin
  • Email id
European Court of Human Rights Finds Slovakia violated Romani women’s rights

(PRESS RELEASE) Today the European Court of Human Rights re-affirmed its recognition of involuntary sterilization of Romani women as a major human rights violation in its ruling in I.G. and Others v. Slovakia.  In the significant decision, the court found that sterilization without prior full and informed consent violated the applicants’ right to be free from inhuman and degrading treatment and their right to respect for private and family life.  


“All women have the fundamental right to exercise autonomy over their reproductive lives, said Johanna Westeson, Regional Director for Europe at the Center for Reproductive Rights. “These women were treated like second-class citizens, humiliated, abused and left with physical and emotional scars – unable to ever bear children again.”


 “It is time for the Slovak government to finally take these gross human rights violations seriously and to ensure that they are effectively and promptly investigated, and that victims be provided with adequate redress.” 


The applicants, I.G., M.K. and R.H., are three women of Romani ethnic origin. They were involuntarily sterilized in a public hospital during childbirth via Caesarian section in 2000, 1999 and 2002 respectively. While in the hospital they were asked to sign a document, which they learned only a few years later during an investigation into their cases, was in fact a request form for sterilization. In addition to not providing informed consent, both I.G. and M.K. were minors at the time, and the doctors sterilized them without the consent of their legal guardians as required by Slovak law. These unlawful and abusive acts permanently deprived the women of their reproductive self-determination, resulting to their physical and psychological suffering. 


The European Court of Human Rights found a violation of the fundamental rights of Ms. I.G. and Ms. M.K. Reiterating that their sterilization was not a life-saving intervention, and that neither the applicants nor their legal guardians gave prior informed consent to the procedure, the court held that the sterilization did not respect the applicants’ human freedom and dignity. It therefore amounted to degrading treatment. The court also found that the Slovak authorities failed to conduct the investigation in an expeditious manner, and that the State did not put in place effective legal safeguards to protect the reproductive health of, in particular, Romani women. With regard to the application of Ms. R.H. the court decided to strike it down due to her death in the course of the proceedings. 


The Center for Reproductive Rights congratulates the Center for Civil and Human Rights (Poradňa), the Slovak human rights organization that represents the applicants, and Ms. I.G. and Ms. M.K. for this major victory. Over the course of one year the European Court of Human Rights has issued three decisions finding Slovakia in violation of reproductive rights of Romani women due to their forced and coerced sterilization (V.C. v. Slovakia (2011) and N.B. v. Slovakia (2012)). In 2003, the Center for Reproductive Rights and Poradňa co-authored a fact-finding report Body and Soul: Forced Sterilization and Other Assaults on Roma Reproductive Freedom in Slovakia, documenting numerous cases of forced and coerced sterilization of Romani women in Slovakia, which was among the first initiatives to shed light on this widespread and discriminatory practice and serious human rights violation. 

Related Posts

State Petition for Cert: JWHO v. Currier

Abortion, Contraception, Maternal Health,United States, Accountability Bodies, United Nations,In the Courts

A.S. v. Hungary: CEDAW Ruling

Communication No. 4/2004Submitted by: Ms. A. S. (represented by the European Roma Rights Center and the Legal Defence Bureau for...

Maternal Health, Coercive Policies,Europe, Hungary,In the Courts

A.S. v. Hungary: Amicus Brief

UNITED NATIONS COMMITTEE ON THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMENSUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION RE:A.S. V. HUNGARYCOMMUNICATION NO: 4/2004This memorandum...

Maternal Health, Coercive Policies,Europe, Hungary,In the Courts

Sign up for email updates.

The most up-to-date news on reproductive rights, delivered straight to you.

Footer Menu

  • Careers
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us

Center for Reproductive Rights
© (1992-2022)

Use of this site signifies agreement with our disclaimer and privacy policy.

Center for Reproductive Rights
This site uses necessary, analytics and social media cookies to improve your experience and deliver targeted advertising. Click "Options" or click here to learn more and customize your cookie settings, otherwise please click "Accept" to proceed.
OPTIONSACCEPT
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
CookieDurationDescription
_ga2 yearsThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors.
_gat_UA-6619340-11 minuteNo description
_gid1 dayThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form.
_parsely_session30 minutesThis cookie is used to track the behavior of a user within the current session.
HotJar: _hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress30 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjFirstSeen30 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjid1 yearThis cookie is set by Hotjar. This cookie is set when the customer first lands on a page with the Hotjar script. It is used to persist the random user ID, unique to that site on the browser. This ensures that behavior in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID.
HotJar: _hjIncludedInPageviewSample2 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjIncludedInSessionSample2 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjTLDTestsessionNo description
SSCVER1 year 24 daysThe domain of this cookie is owned by Nielsen. The cookie is used for online advertising by creating user profile based on their preferences.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
CookieDurationDescription
_fbp3 monthsThis cookie is set by Facebook to deliver advertisement when they are on Facebook or a digital platform powered by Facebook advertising after visiting this website.
fr3 monthsThe cookie is set by Facebook to show relevant advertisments to the users and measure and improve the advertisements. The cookie also tracks the behavior of the user across the web on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin.
IDE1 year 24 daysUsed by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile.
IMRID1 year 24 daysThe domain of this cookie is owned by Nielsen. The cookie is used for storing the start and end of the user session for nielsen statistics. It helps in consumer profiling for online advertising.
personalization_id2 yearsThis cookie is set by twitter.com. It is used integrate the sharing features of this social media. It also stores information about how the user uses the website for tracking and targeting.
TDID1 yearThe cookie is set by CloudFare service to store a unique ID to identify a returning users device which then is used for targeted advertising.
test_cookie15 minutesThis cookie is set by doubleclick.net. The purpose of the cookie is to determine if the user's browser supports cookies.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
CookieDurationDescription
adEdition1 dayNo description
akaas_MSNBC10 daysNo description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional1 yearThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others1 yearNo description
geoEdition1 dayNo description
next-i18next1 yearNo description
SAVE & ACCEPT
Powered by CookieYes Logo
Scroll Up