Gwendolyn Albert: Forced sterilization victims are dying while the Czech Health Ministry doubts their eligibility for compensation
We are coming to the end of the second year of the implementation of the law to compensate all those who have been forcibly and therefore unlawfully sterilized in the Czech Republic. I would like to take this opportunity to summarize all of the moments when the human rights community, both domestic and international, informed the Czech Health Ministry that its implementation of that law is lagging and called upon the ministry to correct the situation.
Almost one year ago, Elena Gorolová and I attended a session of the Czech Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs to inform the Government that the oldest applicants for this compensation, those who have suffered the longest and who were the guinea pigs for the Czechoslovak authorities’ sterilization program, are dying before they can even receive an answer to their application because it takes the ministry too long to respond. That problem has yet to be resolved.
In cases where the applications for compensation were rejected and the applicants then successfully defended themselves in court, where the courts have overturned the minister’s decision to reject them and the ministry must review their application again, such reviews should be a priority for the ministry. However, the ministry insists on appealing those first-instance judgments to the Supreme Administrative Court, and nobody knows when that court will decide on them.
Of the two international human rights bodies which have investigated the implementation of this law, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights has published her findings and called on the Health Ministry to stop placing the burden of proof entirely on the victims applying for compensation and to share that burden with them. As former ombudswoman Anna Šabatová recently called for, I too am proposing that the ministry share this burden by recognizing the history of these abuses and admitting that there does exist enough evidence of a pattern and practice of forced sterilizations for the ministry to recognize as credible even the claims of those applicants whose original medical records were shredded long ago, and to compensate them immediately.
Both the Czech Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs and the Czech Government Human Rights Council have issued resolutions regarding the delays in these proceedings. The current ombudsman also published a report in which he found that the ministry is violating the law on compensation as well as the basic principles of good administration, specifically, the principle of timeliness.
Most recently this matter was discussed during a session of the Working Group on Romani Women’s Issues, part of the Czech Government Council for Gender Equality. Unfortunately, from that meeting it remains clear that the Health Ministry’s representatives are reading the law on compensation in a way that is diametrically opposed to its purpose and that they do not identify with the critique coming from both the domestic and the international human rights community.
During the most recent session of the Czech Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs, both Commissioner Fuková and Commissioner Laurenčíková said they might be able to provide some capacities with regard to the communications aspect of this problem. I hope their proposal will be realized as soon as possible.
Despite all of these problems, my message to all who have been sterilized in this country against their will is clear: Apply to this process, it is the only way we can have a record, for history, of what happened to you. However, do not fall for people who claim that if you pay them money up front, they can guarantee your application will succeed. Nobody ethical will make you such a promise. I would also like to reiterate that this procedure closes on 31 December 2024.
I repeat once more all of our calls to the Czech Government to resolve this problem as a matter of priority as soon as possible. The victims continue to pass away not just without redress, but without even an official answer to their applications for compensation.
