Grønlandsudvalget 2023-24
GRU Alm.del Spørgsmål 97
Offentligt
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Ref: CommHR/DM/sf 026-2021
Mr Eduard HEGER
Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic
Ms Mária KOLÍKOVÁ
Minister of Justice of the Slovak Republic
Strasbourg, 12 July 2021
Dear Prime Minister, Minister,
I am writing to call on you to take action to address the situation of victims of forced or coercive
sterilisations in the Slovak Republic. Despite long-standing calls to address their situation, including
ensuring access to compensation, remedies for these human rights violations remain elusive for many
victims.
The issue of sterilisations that were forced, coercive or otherwise not subject to full and informed
consent have by now been well-documented, both in regard of practices in communist-era
Czechoslovakia, as well as in the 1990s and early 2000s in the Slovak Republic. While not the only
victims, Roma women have been particularly at risk of such practices, seemingly driven by
discriminatory attitudes against this minority.
Sterilisation has been recognised by the European Court of Human Rights (“the Court”) as a major
interference with a person’s reproductive health status, bearing on manifold aspects of the individual’s
personal integrity or physical and mental well-being and emotional, spiritual and family life. Making such
an intervention without full and free consent has been found to be incompatible with the requirement of
respect for human freedom and dignity. Furthermore, even in cases where consent had formally been
sought, the Court found in specific individual cases relating to the Slovak Republic, including
V.C. v.
Slovakia
(2011), that these had displayed gross disregard for the right to autonomy and choice as a
patient, and that the manner in which consent was obtained was liable to arouse in the victim feelings
of fear, anguish and inferiority and to entail lasting suffering. As such, in these cases the Court found a
violation of the prohibition of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment contained in the
European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
While the Slovak Republic has subsequently implemented these judgments in relation to individual
measures for the applicants and general measures to ensure non-repetition, all available information
points to the situation of many other victims who did not turn to courts, including the European Court of
Human Rights, remaining unaddressed. It has become clear over the years, as also found by my
predecessors and numerous other human rights bodies, that the possibility of bringing domestic civil
claims for compensation has not provided an effective means of redress, due to the myriad obstacles
faced by victims. In this respect, I recall that the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers 2011
Guidelines on eradicating impunity for serious human rights violations
state that member states should
take all appropriate measures to establish accessible and effective mechanisms which ensure that
victims receive prompt and adequate reparation for the harm suffered.
F – 67075 Strasbourg Cedex, Fax: +33 3 90 21 50 53,
http://www.coe.int/commissioner
e-mail:
[email protected]
 GRU, Alm.del - 2023-24 - Spørgsmål 97: Spm., om at kommentere EU’s menneskerettighedskommisærs brev af 12. juli 2021 til den slovakiske regering
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Calls for such effective mechanisms to be set up have been made for many years by victims, civil
society organisations, and domestic and international human rights bodies, including the
UN Human
Rights Committee.
My own Office’s engagement with the Slovak Republic on this issue goes back
almost two decades. In 2003, the first Commissioner for Human Rights addressed a
Recommendation
to the Slovak Republic, urging it to “undertake to offer a speedy, fair, efficient and just redress”, which
should “include compensation and an apology.” Since then, successive Commissioners have
addressed this issue, including in a follow-up report in
2006,
and country visit reports in
2011
and
2015.
While they welcomed certain progress, such as in amending health care legislation, in each of these
instances they had to conclude that the issue of reparations was never comprehensively resolved,
which is still the case today.
I have taken note of renewed calls on your government to address this situation. In this respect, I
particularly wish to highlight the
Recommendation
by the Public Defender of Rights, published in 2018,
making further recommendations to your government in this area. I wholeheartedly support these calls
and recommendations on providing redress. That accessible and effective mechanisms for this can be
established has been proven in other countries.
Neither apologies nor reparations can undo the harm inflicted on victims, both physically and mentally.
However, such steps would provide a measure of justice that has eluded them for a long time, with
many victims living with the consequences for many decades. I note that some have passed away
before they could receive any redress. As a result, delivering justice can no longer wait.
Taking decisive action on this long-standing issue is not only necessary to deal with past injustices. It
would also provide a clear sign of the Slovak Republic’s commitment to its human rights obligations
more broadly, in relation to women’s rights, combating prejudice and discrimination against
marginalised communities, and fostering social cohesion. In this respect, I recall that good community
relations and trust cannot be built on a history of human rights violations that remain unaddressed.
As a result, I urge you to make concrete commitments to follow up on the recommendations already
made to your government, including by the Public Defender of Rights, and to create effective forms of
redress for these long-standing human rights violations. This would provide an important opportunity to
turn the page on this dark chapter, both for the state and the victims. In this respect, I encourage you
to work closely with the victims and civil society organisations supporting victims, national human rights
bodies, and other experts in finding the best modalities for moving forward swiftly on this important
matter.
I look forward to continuing my constructive dialogue with you.
Sincerely,
Dunja Mijatović