Project Updates

At the end of the last week, a meeting was held between Czech and Slovak women; victims of involuntarily sterilisation, who were sterilised without their informed consent.

Approximately twenty women, predominately from Slovakia, and all victims of forced sterilisation, met to express their support and solidarity with one another. The women, who are often subject to attacks by media as well as by individuals, were discussing the urgent need, and relentless action needed, to bring attention to the practice of involuntary sterilization of Romani women. Their aim is to prevent repetition of these acts in the future.

Czech women expressed their indignation at the fact that, although at the end of 2005 the Czech Ombudsman verified that unlawful sterilizations did indeed, take place in the Czech Republic, the government of the Czech Republic has not dealt with this persistent problem, despite criticism from abroad. However, in Slovakia the situation for these women seems even direr, as on political level there is almost no discussion about the problem of unlawful, involuntary and unjust, sterilisation of Romani women.