COVID-19 Special: Pandemic worsens Roma plight in Europe
Hundreds of beneficiaries
The draft law stipulates that women who were sterilized against their will must prove their claim, which will be assessed by a Health Ministry commission. "The procedure was necessary to make the draft enforceable," Valkova argued. The Czech Commissioner for Human Rights underlined that an estimated four hundred women are entitled, not thousands. "So contrary to previous contentions, the compensation will not cost billions of Czech Koruna," she said.
The amount of compensation was decided on the basis of a 2011 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights on a case brought by Slovak Roma women against Slovakia for their forced sterilizations, when they received a similar sum, said Valkova.