Czech Health Ministry has awarded compensation for illegal sterilizations to 629 women so far, hundreds more await a decision, the opportunity to apply expires at the end of this year
Since the start of 2022, the Czech Health Ministry (MZd) has disbursed more than CZK 188 million [EUR 7.5 million] in compensation claims for forced sterilizations. Compensation worth CZK 300,000 [EUR 12,000] has been awarded to 629 women out of the 1,296 applications received, another 616 applications are still being decided and roughly 30 cases are in court.
MZd spokesperson Ondřej Jakob has informed the Czech News Agency (ČTK) of the numbers. “In several cases the decisions of the ministry were overturned by the court and returned to the ministry for further processing and are in the phase of a rejection having been issued, or further evidence is being sought for them. In most of those cases the ministry filed cassation complaints with the court which have yet to be decided as of today,” Jakob said on Friday, 9 August.
In one case, according to the press spokesperson, the Municipal Court in Prague upheld the MZd decision and has not yet ruled on the rest. “This year, as a result of the court overturning the MZd decisions, there were two cases of compensation subsequently being awarded,” he said, adding that the MZd had filed cassation complaints in both cases.
The illegal sterilizations of Romani women are an historical injustice that transpired in Czechoslovakia and subsequently in the Czech Republic starting in the 1970s. Women were sterilized without their awareness or consent, frequently under pressure, in exchange for welfare benefits or being awarded access to publicly-administered rental housing.
The aim of the sterilizations was to limit the birth rate of the Romani minority. The Dentons law firm reported in a press release last week that after they brought an administrative lawsuit over an applicant’s rejection, and after the court sided with the applicant, the MZd ultimately awarded her compensation.
After the ministry rejected the woman’s original application and her appeal to the MZd, her attorneys filed an administrative lawsuit against both the original decision and the rejection of her appeal. The Municipal Court in Prague overturned both rejections, after which the MZd reviewed her case once more and awarded compensation.
In July, the Supreme Administrative Court (NSS) also expressed its opinion regarding the compensations. According to that court, the ministry must take active steps on its own to verify whether an applicant for compensation was subjected to illegal sterilization.
The NSS rejected the MZd’s previous approach, which required the women themselves to prove their eligibility for compensation. At the same time, the NSS clarified the approach the ministry should take when an applicant’s original medical records no longer exist or are apparently unreliable.
Suspicions that forced sterilizations, mostly of Romani women, were still underway in the Czech Republic were raised in 2004 by the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC). Dozens of women then turned to the Public Defender of Rights (the ombudsman) and several also sued in court.
The Czech Government Committee against Torture proposed introducing compensation in 2006. In 2009 the caretaker cabinet of Jan Fischer apologized for the illegal surgeries.
According to the law now in effect, victims can apply for compensation between 1 January 2022 and 31 December 2024.
