EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 88/12

(2004/C 88 E/0012)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0434/03

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(18 February 2003)

Subject: Sterilisation of young Roma women in Slovakia on the basis of misleading information or without their consent

1. Is the Commission aware of the testimony given by two Slovakian women, Magda Kandráèová and Sonja Pokutová, on the Netherlands television programme Network (TV1, 4 February 2003, www.net-werk.tv) that sterilisation or hysterectomies are performed on young mothers from the Roma community who have complications during childbirth and that this happens either without their knowledge or after they are suddenly told during the delivery that there is a medical need for intervention, which amounts to exacting their ill-informed consent?

2. Is there any truth in the statements by the director of the hospital in Spišska Nová Ves saying that it is the Roma women themselves who want to be separated from other Slovakian women in hospital and that Slovakian law authorises hysterectomies to be performed after a second caesarean section because this is good for the women concerned?

3. Is the Commission aware of reports, confirmed by the Poradna human rights organisation, that interviews with 230 Roma women showed that 140 of them had been misled in this way and that unwanted operations of this kind occur particularly in the case of young women who have had their first or second child and that it can therefore be assumed that the measure is primarily designed to keep the numbers of Roma, a group disliked by many other nationals, as low as possible?

4. Is this a case of practices developed during the 1938-1945 and 1948-1989 dictatorships living on in the medical profession despite there being no legal basis for them?

5. What is the Commission doing to ensure that the Slovakian judicial system prosecutes those who break the law and that the necessary changes to the law, if any, are adopted in Slovakia to put an end to forced sterilisations as soon as possible and to ensure that such practices are never carried out again after Slovakia joins the EU?

Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission

(13 March 2003)

The Commission is aware of the allegations, recently published in a report of the ‘Center for Reproductive Rights’, a non-governmental organisation based in New York, and which were later reflected in other media statements, that Roma women are being sterilised without their consent or with coerced consent by doctors in Eastern Slovakia. The report raised also other human rights violations such as discriminatory access to health-care resources and treatment.

Forced or coerced sterilisation of women is punishable under Slovak legislation.

The Member of the Commission responsible for Enlargement has immediately addressed this issue in a letter to Slovak Prime Minister Dzurinda, underlining that these allegations are a matter of serious concern and if proved to be true, would constitute a serious breach of human rights. He has asked the Slovak authorities to vigorously carry out the necessary investigations, remedy possible discriminatory measures and keep the Commission informed about the proceedings.

The Commission has been informed that Slovak Deputy Prime Minister Csaky instructed the competent authorities to launch the necessary investigations.