Civil society asks Czech Government to extend the law compensating illegally sterilized women, analysis shows problems with the process

“We are demanding that this law be extended, especially because we believe the Health Ministry has really not fulfilled its aim and purpose. All of the victims have not been compensated and have not enjoyed equal opportunities during this process. The ministry has committed such serious wrongdoing that it is genuinely appropriate for the Czech Republic to adopt this approach so as to be able to correct the failures on the part of the ministry,” LLP lawyer Sandra Pašková told the press.

FULL RECORDING OF THE PRESS CONFERENCE

Pašková, who co-authored the law on compensating these victims, said the Health Ministry is not just being criticized by the non-governmental sector. The Public Defender of Rights (the ombudsman) has repeatedly subjected the ministry to criticism as well. “The League of Human Rights fully identifies with the Public Defender of Rights’ proposals for what the Government should impose upon the minister,” Pašková said.

Czech Government Committee against Torture proposes the Government extend the deadline for compensation claims by at least one year

Speaking as a member of the Czech Government Human Rights Council‘s Committee against Torture and Inhumane Treatment, Pašková also said the Committee has taken the absolutely fundamental decision to recommend the Government propose extending the legal deadline for filing claims for the provision of the one-time compensation payment by at least one year. Although such a move was rejected by the Health Ministry in the spring, in light of the new case law from the Supreme Administrative Court in particular, it appears to be a justifiable step to take and would be feasible to do as emergency legislation.

“The Committee has decided to recommend the Government extend the lawful deadline for filing a claim for compensation by at least one year. Given the scope of the problem, this step is absolutely justified and legislatively feasible,” Pašková said.

Elena Gorolová, an activist who is herself a forced sterilization survivor and has been advocating for women’s rights for more than 18 years, emphasized that “the women are unhappy about the ministry’s behavior, they need answers to their questions, and mainly, they need these decisions to be made on time. Many of them are sick and some have already died.”

Health Ministry is not processing requests within the legally-prescribed timeframe and is only recognizing original medical records as evidence

By law, the Health Ministry has 60 days to handle requests and 30 days to send the money to those whose claims are found eligible. In its instructions on how to request compensation, the ministry says evidence generally includes printed materials, expert evaluations, forensic evaluations, eyewitness testimonies, or documents from other official sources. Human rights organizations and organizations serving the Romani community have been repeatedly complaining that the timeframe established by law is not being upheld by the ministry, which is also not recognizing any evidence other than the existence of original medical records.

These organizations are also pointing out that after so many decades, many original medical records have been either accidentally destroyed, lost somehow, or officially shredded and that the compensation law permits other documents to be considered evidence. In the summer of 2022, such organizations called for the awarding of compensation to be corrected in this regard. “This approach contravenes the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court, which emphasized that when records are unavailable, other proof can be taken into consideration, such as the testimonies of witnesses, for example,” the LLP said.

However, even women whose original medical records are complete will not necessarily be awarded compensation, as demonstrated by the story of one of the LLP’s clients. That applicant did not succeed without taking the ministry to court. Her medical records showed she had signed just a general consent to surgery without specification of the details. According to the legal regulations in effect at the time, however, for her consent to sterilization to have been informed, it should have included instructions to her in writing about what sterilization means, in particular the fact that it is an irreversible procedure, which the records did not include. Despite the ministry being aware of that fact, after losing in the first instance and compensating the applicant, it also lodged an appeal against the ruling. The woman is now uncertain whether she will actually be able to keep the compensation disbursed to her – should the next court instance agree with the ministry, she might have to return the money.

The Czech Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs has repeatedly discussed the compensation process. Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner Klára Šimáčková Laurenčíková and Czech Government Commissioner for Roma Minority Affairs Lucie Fuková have previously mentioned their efforts to get the ministry to recognize the testimonies of witnesses and other kinds of documents as evidence. The ombudsman’s report to the Government pointed to “extreme delays, poor assessment of evidence, and decisions contravening court rulings.”

Jana Řepová, a lawyer and psychologist with the LLP, presented the case of a client who waited 554 days for the Health Ministry to issue its first decision in her case. “Although she ultimately succeeded, many other women have had to appeal to the minister or sue in court over their rejected requests and the timeframes for resolving appeals or lawsuits are even lengthier. The client of ours who has been waiting the longest for a final decision has done so for 874 days. These women very often need psychological spport during this demanding process,” she said. 

The Health Ministry is overburdened and is not managing to process the requests within the timeframe established by the compensation law. This is negatively impacting the women who have frequently been waiting for more than a year, as some of them are in such poor health that they may die before being compensated. “Unfortunately, some of our clients also passed away before they could be compensated. Such a fate may await another client of ours who is a cancer patient still waiting for the final decision,” Řepová said. 

Analysis of process compensating those who have been illegally sterilized: Long waiting times and problems with proof

The analysis prepared by the LLP on the basis of the limited data acquired by the ROMEA organization on the basis of the law on freedom of information has revealed serious shortcomings in the compensation process. “Complete data cannot be presented because the Health Ministry is unwilling to provide information under the law on freedom of information within the timeframe established. It was requested in April of this year,” the LLP said.

As of 19 September 2024, the Health Ministry has recorded a total of 1,971 applications for compensation for an illegal sterilization. Of that number, 1,381 applications have been processed, of which 656 requests were awarded compensation, 229 proceedings have been suspended and 496 requests have been rejected. Of the suspended proceedings, 23 requests concerned allegedly forced sterilizations performed after 31 March 2012.

These data demonstrate serious shortcomings with the compensation process, as confirmed by a detailed analysis of 581 decisions.

For that data set, the average length of processing a request is 136 days, but clients of the LLP experienced an average processing time of 240 days. When LLP clients appealed their rejections, proceedings on that appeal took an average of 154 days.

The longest proceeding on record in the data set took 554 days for a first decision to be issued, while the lengthiest appeals proceeding took 311 days. One proceeding that involved rejection of a request, appeal of that rejection, and the return of the case by the minister to the ministry so a new decision could be issued took an unbelievable 874 days. If the applicants sue in court, the entire process can be extended by up to 714 days.

The analysis confirms that one of the main problems with the requests for compensation is evidence. Of 285 decisions to award compensation in the data set, just four women whose original medical records no longer exist were awarded compensation, and two of them had at least partial documentation.

The biggest number of illegal sterilizations to be awarded compensation in this data set, according to the analysis, were performed by a hospital in Most. Of 84 applications filed, 80 were successful.

The press conference was organized by the LLP and the British Embassy. British Ambassador Matt Field opened the conference at the embassy itself.

Czech Government Commissioner for Roma Minority Affairs Lucie Fuková also spoke at the end of the press conference. She called for cooperation and dialogue between the afflicted women and these government institutions so further delays can be prevented and the transparency of the whole process can be improved.

Elective sterilizations for the purposes of completely ending fertility were systematically regulated by a directive from the Health Ministry in 1971 (the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic were one country then, Czechoslovakia). In 1973, the state made it possible to also financially motivate women to undergo sterilization, interfering with the freedom of their decisions to do so. In 1978, Charter 77 published a samizdat document criticizing the position of Romani people in society which first mentioned that such women were being pressured into undergoing sterilization. Suspicions that forced sterilizations were still happening among Romani women in the Czech Republic in particular were then raised in 2004 by the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC). Dozens of women then submitted complaints to the ombudsman and several also sued in court. The Czech Government Commitee against Torture proposed compensating the women in 2006. In 2009, the caretaker cabinet of Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer apologized for the illegal surgeries.