VC v Slovakia: A Step Toward Justice for Roma Women

November 18, 2011

In a groundbreaking decision, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that forced sterilization is a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights (specifically Article 3, which prohibits torture or inhuman and degrading treatment, and Article 8, which protects the right to private and family life). This long-awaited judgment in the case of VC v Slovakia is a step forward for efforts to bring justice to the potentially thousands of Roma women who were sterilized without their consent in Central and Eastern Europe. The extent of the abuse was first exposed in detail in the 2003 report, Body and Soul: Forced Sterilization and Other Assaults on Roma Reproductive Freedom in Slovakia.

VC, a Romani woman, was forcibly sterilized in a state hospital in Eastern Slovakia during a cesarean section. While she was in the height of labor, hospital staff insisted that she sign a consent form for sterilization, without informing her about what the procedure entailed. She was only told that a future pregnancy could kill her and was pressured to immediately undergo the procedure. VC did not understand what she was agreeing to but fearing for her life, she signed the form.

After learning that the sterilization was not medically necessary—and that the hospital staff violated her rights by not providing her with full information on the implications of the procedure—VC filed a civil lawsuit in Slovakia. The pursuit of justice at home failed, and in 2007 she filed a complaint against Slovakia at the European Court of Human Rights.

In its decision, the court noted that sterilization is never a life saving procedure and cannot be performed without the full and informed consent of the patient even if doctors believe that future pregnancy may pose a risk to the woman. The court wrote:

According to the Government, the applicant’s sterilisation was aimed at preventing a possibly life-threatening deterioration of her health. Such a threat was not imminent as it was likely to materialise only in the event of a future pregnancy. It could also have been prevented by means of alternative, less intrusive methods. In those circumstances, the applicant’s informed consent could not be dispensed with on the basis of an assumption on the part of the hospital staff that she would act in an irresponsible manner with regard to her health in the future.

The court found that the hospital staff acted without respect for human dignity and human freedom by not giving VC the time and information necessary to make a free and fully informed decision. The court wrote, “the way in which the hospital staff acted was paternalistic, since, in practice, the applicant was not offered any option but to agree to the procedure which the doctors considered appropriate in view of her situation.” It recognized that “the sterilization procedure grossly interfered with the applicant’s physical integrity” and that medical personnel acted “with gross disregard to her right to autonomy and choice as a patient.”

Read more about the case and the court’s decision here: http://blog.soros.org/2011/11/vc-v-slovakia-a-step-toward-justice-for-roma-women/

Country : Slovakia

Tagged : discrimination   European Court of Human Rights   forced sterilization   human rights   law and health   Roma   Slovakia   torture   women