[women-rights] Hungary coercively sterilised Romani woman

CEDAW Committee Condemns Hungary for Violations of International Law

Budapest, 31 August 2006. In a decision communicated this week, the UN
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
condemned Hungary for violating the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women in connection with the sterilisation
of a Romani woman without her consent in January 2001.

On 2 January 2001, a Romani woman (Ms. S.) was sterilised by doctors at
the Fehergyarmat hospital. While being operated on in connection with a
miscarriage, she was asked to sign forms giving her consent to this and
other operations, without a full explanation about the intervention, its
nature, possible risks, or what the consequences of being sterilised would
be. She was not told about other forms of birth control either. It was
only after the operation that she learnt that she could not become
pregnant again.

On 15 October 2001, Ms. S and her attorney filed a civil claim for damages
against the hospital. They requested finding the hospital in violation of
the plaintiff's civil rights and that it had acted negligently in its
professional duty of care with regard to the sterilisation of Ms. S in the
absence of her full and informed consent. The claim was turned down on 22
November 2002.

On appeal, the Szabolcs-Szatmar-Bereg County Court held that the hospital
doctors had indeed acted negligently in failing to provide Ms. S with the
relevant information about the sterilisation and stressed that "the
information given to the plaintiff concerning her sterilisation was not
detailed ...  ... was not informed of the exact method of the operation,
of the risks of its performance, and of the possible alternative
procedures and methods".

Nevertheless, the same Court concluded that sterilisations as such are
fully reversible operations and that since Ms. S. had provided no proof
that she had suffered a lasting detriment, she was not entitled to
compensation.

Since Hungarian courts failed to provide adequate remedy for Ms. S. on 12
February 2004, the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) and the Legal
Defence Bureau for National and Ethnic Minorities (NEKI)  jointly filed a
complaint against Hungary with CEDAW relating to the illegal
sterilization. The complaint asserted that Hungary, as a State Party to
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women
<http://www.hrea.org/erc/library/display.php?doc_id=483&category_id=31&category_type=3&group=human%20rights%20treaties%20and%20other%20instruments>,
is in violation of a number of provisions of the Convention, as a result
of (1) failures to provide adequate information on contraceptive measures
and family planning, (2) the lack of informed consent on the part of Ms.
S. as a violation of her right to appropriate health care services, and
(3)  interference with Ms. S.'s ability to have children in the future.  
In its decision communicated, the Committee stated that it was convinced
by the ERRC/NEKI arguments that sterilization is intended to be
irreversible, that the success rate of surgery to reverse sterilization is
low and depends on many factors, and that reversal surgery is risky. With
respect to the claim that Hungary violated the Convention by failing to
provide information and advice on family planning the Committee stated
that the applicant "has a right protected by article 10(h) of the
Convention to specific information on sterilization and alternative
procedures for family planning in order to guard against such an
intervention being carried out without her having made a fully informed
choice."

In connection with the sterilization surgery without an informed consent
the Committee reiterated that according under article 12 of the
Convention, States parties shall "ensure to women appropriate services in
connection with pregnancy, confinement, and the post-natal period".
According to its General Recommendation 24, "Acceptable services are those
that are delivered in a way that ensures that a woman gives her fully
informed consent, respects her dignity, guarantees her needs and
perspectives. States parties should not permit forms of coercion, such as
non-consensual sterilisation."

The Committee also recalled its general recommendation 19 in which it
states that "Compulsory sterilization...adversely affects women's physical
and mental health, and infringes the right of women to decide on the
number and spacing of their children." The Committee found that the
sterilization surgery was performed on Ms. S. without her full and
informed consent and must be considered to have permanently deprived her
of her natural reproductive capacity, therefore her right to decide freely
and responsibly on the number and spacing of her children was also
violated.

In conclusion, the Committee holds that appropriate compensation should be
paid to Ms. S. commensurate with the gravity of the violation of her
rights. The Hungarian government should also ensure that the relevant
provisions of the Convention and the pertinent paragraphs of the
Committee's general recommendations in relation to women's reproductive
health and rights are known and adhered to by all relevant personnel in
public and private health centres, including hospitals and clinics.

The decision further states that the government should review domestic
legislation on the principle of informed consent in cases of sterilization
and ensure its conformity with international human rights and medical
standards. It should also repeal provisions allowing physicians "to
deliver the sterilization without the information procedure generally
specified when it seems to be appropriate in given circumstances". Public
and private health centres which perform sterilization procedures,
including hospitals and clinics, should be monitored so as to ensure that
fully informed consent is being given by the patient before any
sterilization procedure is carried out, with appropriate sanctions in
place in the event of a breach.

This is the second time that the Committee has found Hungary in breach of
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women.

The decision is among important moves by domestic and international
tribunals to provide redress to victims of coercive sterilisation in a
number of countries of Central and Eastern Europe. These efforts have not
yet been matched by governments: as yet there have been few if any
acknowledgements of the systemic nature of race-based infringements of the
right to informed consent in sterilisation matters, and the subsequent
extreme human rights abuses inflicted on many Romani women.

The New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights provided additional
legal analysis supporting the arguments of ERRC/NEKI.

For further details on this case, please contact dr. Anita Danka at ERRC
(anita.danka@errc.org), (36 1) 41 32 200, or dr. Bea Bodrogi at NEKI
(bbodrogi@yahoo.com), (36 1) 303 89 73 or (36 1) 31 3144 998.

Further information on regional efforts to challenge the coercive
sterilisation of Romani women is also available by contacting the offices
of ERRC.