Woman not to be compensated for unwanted sterilisation

Brno, Feb 18 (CTK) - The Czech Constitutional Court (US) has rejected the complaint lodged by a woman over unwanted sterilisation she underwent in 1982 as unsubstantiated and she will not get the six million crowns she demanded, CTK has found in the US data base.

The woman was only offered an apology as a moral satisfaction.

Lower instance courts did not acknowledge the financial compensation to her as the claim falls under the statute of limitations.

Last year, the woman's complaint was also turned down by the Supreme Court.

The woman said in her complaint the apology for which she had to wait and fight for years in court was not sufficient due to the serious interference in her rights.

According to the indictment, the sterilisation was performed after the second caesarean section. It said the woman did not have enough information on the surgery.

When trying to conceive later, she found out that she was infertile. Lower instance courts ruled that doctors had made mistakes. The woman did not have enough information and she allegedly signed her consent only after the delivery.

The ombudsman's office, various Czech courts as well as the European Court of Human Rights have dealt with unwanted sterilisations, mostly from the Communist era.

Caretaker government of Jan Fischer voiced regret at them in 2009.

Involuntary sterilisations were performed on tens of woman, mostly Romany, while some estimates speak about hundreds and even thousands.

Of late, the European Court of Human Rights dealt with the sterilisation of Romany women in Slovakia.

In 2011, it adjudged 31,000 euros to a woman who agreed with the surgery in 2000, but she was unable to realise what it really meant.

In June and November 2012, the Strasbourg court ruled to the benefit of some more Slovak women in similar ways.