Czech Government has yet to discuss prolonging the compensation law for those illegally sterilized, its Committee against Torture and nonprofits are calling on it to do so

Victims who were subjected to such surgery between 1 July 1966 and 31 March 2012 without freely deciding to do so and without being informed of the repercussions of undergoing (or not undergoing) the procedure can apply to the state for CZK 300,000 [EUR 12,000] in compensation. The state has been accepting the applications since 2022, but the process expires at the end of this year.

Czech Health Minister Válek: There are more applications than were assumed

Válek recalled that the original estimated number of the requests to be submitted, according to the explanatory memorandum on the law, was 400, but in reality 2,000 have already been received. “Almost 1,500 of those have been processed and 688 of them have been recognized as eligible,” the minister said, adding that roughly CZK 203 million [EUR 8 million] has been paid to the victims so far.

VIDEO OF THE PRESS CONFERENCE AFTER THE CABINET SESSION ON 6 NOVEMBER 2024

Some rejected requests are currently making their way through the courts, which have sided with the applicants in the overwhelming majority of decisions so far. In September, activists for the rights of the unlawfully sterilized, the League of Human Rights (LLP) NGO, and Romani organizations called on the Government to prolong the law. They are criticizing the approach taken by the Health Ministry, the delays in processing the requests, and the rejection of applications which should be eligible. Strong criticism was also voiced at the public discussion entitled “Last Chance”, held by the ROMEA organization in October.

Ombudsman warns that the decisions are delayed and inconsistent

Ombudsman Stanislav Křeček has submitted a report to the Government warning of the “extreme delays”, insufficient assessment of evidence, and decisions made by the Health Ministry that violate court rulings. He is also criticizing the ministry’s poor communication, especially with the applicants themselves, and its frequent failure to meet the legally-prescribed deadline of 60 days for processing the requests. According to him, the delays in some cases have even lasted more than a year. The Government took note of his report on Wednesday.

According to the critics, the ministry has failed to fulfill the aim and purpose of the law. All eligible victims have not been compensated, and they have not enjoyed equal opportunities to be compensated.

According to the ombudsman, the ministry often rejects the requests of women whose original medical records no longer exist, even though that violates the most recent verdicts of the Supreme Administrative Court (the NSS). The Health Ministry has intensified its communication with both the applicants and the ombudsman since the Government received the ombudsman’s report, but the ombudsman nevertheless still has not received specific answers to questions about specific applications.

Health Ministry: The procedures have been transformed for faster processing

The Health Ministry says it has 60 days to process each request, and once eligibility is ascertained, it has 30 days to send the money to the applicant. In its previous instructions to applicants, the ministry said that proof of eligibility generally included, for example, documents, expert opinions and statements, sworn testimonies or background materials from other authorities, but human rights and Romani organizations have been repeatedly warning that with the exception of original medical records, which hospitals have already shredded in some cases, the ministry is barely recognizing other kinds of proof.

Speaking during the press conference after the cabinet session Wednesday, Válek claimed that the procedures have been revamped so the processing of the requests can happen as quickly as possible. “I’ve proposed a meeting between the legislative advisors and lawyers of the Health Ministry and the lawyers of the ombudsman during which we will look for ways to accelerate and simplify this process further,” he said. At the same time, he admitted that for women who underwent these surgeries decades ago, it may be complicated for them to submit the necessary documentation.

“If such a document does not exist, it is difficult for the ministry to decide to pay compensation. Those who are making these decisions would be vulnerable to potential criminal prosecution in the future,” Válek asserted.

The chair of the Chamber of Deputies and of the TOP 09 party, Markéta Pekarová Adamová, agrees with that assessment. “This is about public money, and therefore it must be clearly demonstrated during the proceeding that the claim is justified,” she told news server Romea.cz.

Ombudsman Křeček has confirmed that he has agreed to meet with the Health Ministry: “We are leaving the cabinet session where we agreed that the Office of the Ombudsman will connect with the Health Ministry as soon as possible and that our negotiations will continue. I appreciate that Minister Válek took the initiative on seeking a solution. I believe we will manage to find a successful way to process these requests for compensation for illegal sterilizations,” he said on Wednesday.

According to the minister, the Government agreed to move forward with the compensation procedure, but extending the deadline by which to apply is not part of its plan. “If we were to support a motion to extend the timeframe, a clear reason would have to exist, for instance, if it turned out that some women objectively were unable to apply in time,” he said.

The Government’s Committee against Torture and nonprofits are asking for the application deadline to be extended

Extending the lawful deadline for applying for the one-time compensation for illegal sterilization is not just being proposed by nonprofit organizations or the ombudsman, but also by the Committee against Torture and Inhumane Treatment of the Czech Government Human Rights Council.

On 4 October 2024, that advisory body adopted a resolution calling on the Government to extend the process by at least one year. Such a move would give all affected women an opportunity to apply under fairer conditions in accordance with the new interpretation of the law as ruled on by the courts.

“The relevance of this recommendation is even greater today given the key judgments handed down by the NSS this year. The natural inference to draw from the case-law development, even just before the end of this opportunity to file applications under the law, is that the decision-making practice of the Health Ministry is not consistent and differs according to when the application was submitted. The earlier requests were assessed under significantly less favourable conditions for those applicants,” reads the justification of the resolution.

According to the Committee, all women have to have an opportunity to make their claims under the same conditions, and that requires a decision-making practice that is constant and that the courts approve of as in accordance with the law. According to the Committee, no such practice exists. “That deficiency was also confirmed by the high rate of success of the applicants before the administrative courts, including the Supreme Administrative Court. For that reason, it is essential to extend the time during which claims can be made. It is appropriate to do so immediately, in a state of legislative emergency because of human rights violations, and to thereby send the clear signal that the Czech Republic takes its obligation to compensate victims seriously,” the Committee says.

Chair of the Chamber of Deputies Pekarová Adamová: The Health Ministry is doing the maximum

Organizations called for the compensation award process to be corrected already in the summer of 2022. The Czech Government Council on Roma Minority Affairs has repeatedly discussed the process. Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner Klára Šimáčková Laurenčíková and Czech Government Commissioner for Roma Minority Affairs Lucie Fuková previously mentioned their efforts to have testimonies and other documents recognized as evidence during the processing, and the ombudsman, for example, in his report to the Government, referenced “extreme delays, poor assessment of evidence, decisions contravening court opinions.”

Chair of the Chamber of Deputes Markéta Pekarová Adamová was one of those who signed onto the law to compensate these illegally sterilized women, but she is convinced the Health Ministry is taking all the steps it can to enforce the law effectively.

“The forced sterilization of Romani and other women is a tragic chapter in our history. It is quite a complicated issue and the process for compensating the victims can sometimes encounter certain problems,” the chair of the lower house and the TOP 09 party told news server Romea.cz. Just like Válek, she pointed out that the estimated number of requests for compensation was 400 when the law was adopted and subsequently dramatically grew to more than 2,000. According to her, each case must be assessed in detail individually, which takes time. “I think the Health Ministry is doing the maximum in that regard,” she said.

The chair of the lower house does not identify with any of the criticism from the Czech Government Human Rights Council’s Committee against Torture and Inhuman Treatment, the nonprofit organizations, or the ombudsman. “I am convinced the Health Ministry is doing everything in its power and is doing its best to uphold the legal timeframe. In complex cases, certain delays may occur,” she said.

According to the chair of the lower house, these applicants are being extensively instructed about the phases of the proceedings, their rights and responsibilities during them, and types of evidence and how to submit them. She said the ministry communicates through its information line at the e-mail address sterilizace@mzcr.cz. “In addition, the ministry has designed a webpage with clear, detailed information,” was her response to the crushing criticism of this ministry which is being run by the TOP 09 party, of which she is chair.

When asked whether she would change anything about the wording of the law in retrospect or whether she would extend its duration, Pekarová Adamová said she would not change anything.

The systematic sterilizations of women in the former Czechoslovakia were enshrined into law by a directive from the Health Ministry in 1971. In 1973, the state made it possible to financially motivate women to undergo sterilization. In 1978, Charter 77 published a document criticizing the position of Roma in society in which it was first mentioned that women were being pressured to undergo such surgery. Suspicions that forced sterilizations were continuing in 21st-century Czech Republic, primarily among Romani women, were raised by the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) in 2004. Dozens of women then applied to the ombudsman, some of whom also sued in court. The Committee against Torture proposed compensating the victims in 2006. In 2009 the cabinet expressed regret for the illegal surgeries, but the compensation law was not adopted until 2021.