On 18 February 2009, the European Roma Rights Centre, along with a number of other human rights organizations, sent a letter to the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg. The letter urges the Commissioner to investigate reports of forced sterilization in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia on women who are mainly of Roma origin. Although the practice of forced sterilization is tied to the communist era, the letter points to data indicating that the problem persists in these countries. The United Nations has offered recommendations, but the governments of the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia have failed to take the steps necessary to remedy the problem, and there remain significant legal and social obstacles to overcoming these abuses.
The letter urges the Commissioner to investigate the problem of forced sterilization in these countries and to work directly with the individual governments concerned in order to eradicate this practice.
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For the full text of the Letter to the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, please click here.
Compiled from: Rights Groups Urge Council of Europe Action on Coerced Sterilisation Matters, European Roma Rights Centre (19 February 2009); Rights Groups Urge Council of Europe Action on Coerced Sterilisation Matters, Women's UN Report Network (WUNRN).