Czech Roma women testify to forced sterilisation at Council of Europe meeting

Two Roma women, attending a Council of Europe meeting in Strasbourg on Monday, described in emotional detail how they had been sterilised against their will in Czech hospitals, AFP news agency reports. Helena Baloghova and Elena Gorolova gave moving testimony as they presented a photographic exhibition created by an association of women victims of forced sterilisation. The group, based in the Moravian town of Ostrava, is calling for compensation and a public apology for illegal sterilisations of Roma patients. A Czech expert at the Strasbourg meeting said the problem of the sterilised women remained unresolved since the Czech government had yet to review ombudsman Otakar Motejl's conclusions on the subject.

In November 2005, a Czech court ordered a hospital to apologise to 22-year-old Roma woman Helena Ferencikova for sterilizing her without her consent, but it ruled she did not qualify for compensation.