Czech court sides with Romani victim of forced sterilization, quashes Health Ministry's rejection of her request for compensation, says her family member's testimony cannot be ignored

This decision sets a fundamental precedent that could impact dozens of cases. The League of Human Rights (LLP), which represented the applicant during the compensation proceedings, informed news server Romea.cz of the judgment in a press release.  

The Municipal Court in Prague ruled in favor of the plaintiff, who sought compensation for her illegal sterilization. In her request, she described how, in 1981, she was pregnant with her sixth child.

“When I visited the advice center, the doctor persuaded me to terminate the pregnancy. I had originally planned to keep the child, but it was true that I was tired out by caring for my large family,” the plaintiff said, adding that she eventually succumbed to the pressure and made an appointment for an abortion.

However, once she was in the hospital to terminate her pregnancy, physicians there suggested she also undergo sterilization. “They just told me it was birth control,” described the plaintiff.

According to the plaintiff, nobody ever warned her that sterilization is irreversible and that she would never be able to conceive again. By the time she realized what sterilization actually meant, it was too late.

“I found out that it meant cutting my fallopian tubes and tying them off. When I realized this, I felt cheated and worthless,” the plaintiff said.

The plaintiff is convinced that her Romani origin is the reason she was sterilized without her informed consent. “I believe they sterilized me mainly because I am a Romani woman, and that greatly pains me,” she said.

To this day, the plaintiff does not trust doctors, and the entire experience also harmed her health. “My state of health is not the best, I suffer from stomachache and I am afraid to go to a physician,” she said.

The Czech Health Ministry originally rejected her request for compensation, alleging that she had not met the burden of proof, as her original medical records no longer exist and her sister’s testimony as a witness was assessed as not believable. However, the court rejected that approach and ruled that the ministry should have viewed the plaintiff’s sister’s testimony as relevant evidence.

“The plaintiff presented a plausible, defensible claim during the proceedings that she had been sterilized in violation of the law in force at the time because she was unaware of the irreversibility of the procedure. Her claim is also confirmed by her sister’s witness statement, which the court considers to be significant evidence,” the judgment states.

According to the court, the ministry totally omitted any reference to the historical context of the forced sterilizations which were performed in Czechoslovakia, chiefly on Romani women, from its decision. That aspect must be taken into consideration when assessing requests for compensation.

“The plaintiff was literally a ‘protoype’ of the persons upon whom, during the period at issue, interference with their integrity consisting of their sterilization against their will was committed,” the court ruled.

Precedent for future cases

According to the LLP, the Health Ministry has systematically refused to recognize the testimony of family members so far, referencing their bias, and has also demanded that such evidence come “right from the operating room”. The LLP press release says: “This judgment is an important precedent because it reveals that the ministry will no longer be able to continue to reject requests solely because the original medical records no longer exist or to require that eyewitness testimony only means testimony from persons present right in the operating room during the surgery.”

Anna Indra Štefanides, a lawyer and statutory representative of the League of Human Rights, said she considers the judgment essential. “I see this decision as crucial because it finally gives clear instructions on how to proceed with witness statements and how to evaluate them,” she said.

According to Štefanides, the court has confirmed once more that family members’ testimonies cannot be automatically rejected just because they are not third parties with no other attachments to the plaintiffs. “For too long, the ministry has set up unmeetable requirements for the burden of proof to be met by the victims of illegal sterilizations, which this judgment has clearly rejected,” she warned.

Moreover, Štefanides said the verdict yields important guidance for assessing cases which are similar. “It clarifies what it means for a claim to be defensible and which indices must be taken into consideration,” she said.

Ministry must reassess the case

The court returned the case to the ministry for reassessment with a clear instruction to take into account the eyewitness testimony of the plaintiff’s sister as relevant evidence. The court also pointed out that this is not the only case of a rejected request for compensation for illegal sterilization that it has reviewed.

“The current case is just one of many in which the defendant [the Health Ministry] has denied an applicant’s claim to compensation,” the court ruled. According to the judgment, administrative courts have repeatedly explained to the ministry what the meaning and purpose of the law on compensating illegal sterilizations actually is.

“It is exactly a grasp of the meaning and purpose of this law that has an essential, real influence on assessing the issues arising when determining the facts of each case,” the court said, adding that the ministry must find a balance between the requesting parties’ responsibility to submit evidence and the state’s own obligation to ascertain the facts of each case. The court likewise criticized the approach of the ministry, which is still ignoring the essence of the law even after a series of court decisions explaining it have been issued.

“Even after a series of judgments by the Municipal Court in Prague and by the Supreme Administrative Court, the defendant [the Health Ministry] remains indifferent to the meaning and purpose of this law in many cases, even though it claims the opposite,” the judgment states. According to the court, the Health Ministry cannot claim that it fulfilled the meaning of the law by simply searching for the plaintiff’s original medical records, which were discarded long ago, and by presenting the evidence as proposed by the applicant, which is just its basic legal obligation.

“The defendant [the Health Ministry] should always keep in mind that although this is a proceeding regarding a request, it is nevertheless also an effort by the state to atone for the wrongs that the state itself has admitted to,” the court reminded the ministry in the judgment. The LLP believes this ground-breaking judgment will also aid other women who are still seeking justice for their forced sterilizations.

The Health Ministry must now reassess the case and decide in accordance with the court’s legal opinion. According to the LLP, legal support to the plaintiff in this case was provided by the Dentons Law Office, whose collaboration in the field of illegal sterilizations has significantly contributed to achieving justice for these victimized women.

The Health Ministry has said that as of the start of January 2025, which was the deadline for filing requests for compensation for illegal sterilizations, 2,266 requests had been submitted. It has been possible to submit such requests since 1 January 2022, and a number were submitted prior to the deadline expiring.

When the compensation law was adopted in 2021, experts estimated that roughly 400 people would request compensation. In 1971, Czechoslovakia introduced the systematic sterilization of women through a ministerial directive.

In 1979, the state also facilitated the financial motivation of women to undergo the surgery. The last known recorded case of an illegal sterilization was committed in 2007.

In 2004, the European Roma Rights Centre came forward with suspicions that the forced sterilizations of Romani women in particular were still transpiring. Dozens of women then turned to the Public Defender of Rights (the ombudsman) and some also sued in court .

According to the law passed in 2021, victims could request compensation between 1 January 2022 and 2 January 2025. However, politicians agree the law must be extended for another two years

The lower house should soon vote on an amendment to keep the compensation process going.

DOCUMENT (Czech only)