''N.B. vs Slovakia'' is the second case concerning

forced sterilization Compulsory sterilization, also known as forced or coerced sterilization, is a government-mandated program to involuntarily sterilize a specific group of people. Sterilization removes a person's capacity to reproduce, and is usually done throug ...

Romani people The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sig ...

or Gypsy women from

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

decided by the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that ...

. The decision came only few months after the release of the judgment in the similar case '' V. C. vs. Slovakia''. Once again, the Court unanimously found that the Romani woman had been sterilized without informed consent in contravention of Articles 3 and 8 of the

European Convention on Human Rights The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is an international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by ...

. N.B. was forcibly sterilized in the

Gelnica Gelnica ( hu, Gölnicbánya, german: Göllnitz) is a town in the Košice Region of Eastern Slovakia. It has a population of 6,076. Names The name comes from the name of the river Hnilec derived from Slavic word ''hnilý'' (rotten). The initial ...

Hospital, in Eastern Slovakia, during the caesarean section delivery of her second child v on 25 April 2001. At the time of sterilization, she was only 17 years old, and was a legal minor under the Slovak law. Informed consent of her legal guardians (parents) was legally required. However, the guardians did not give any consent to sterilization and no record on this was entered in the release report from the hospital. N.B. found about the sterilization only several months later, after her lawyers inspected her medical records in the Hospital. Afterwards, in 2004, N.B. sued the Hospital for damages and she also started criminal proceedings against the doctors. In 2008, the District Court in Spišska Nova Ves found sterilization illegal and granted her compensations in amount of app. 1,590 EUR. N.B. found this inadequate in the view of the seriousness of the forced intervention. The police and the

Constitutional Court of Slovakia Building of the Constitutional Court of Slovakia in Košice The Constitutional Court of Slovakia (officially Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic, sk, Ústavný súd Slovenskej republiky) is a special court established by the Constituti ...

rejected her complaints, so she brought the case to the European Court. The Court ruled in her favour on 12 June 2012. N.B. was represented by lawyers from the Slovak feminist group Center for Civil and Human Rights from Košice who represent many other similar cases. After the decision, they called on the Slovak Government to compensate all the victims in pending cases instead of repeatedly "facing an international humiliation and condemnation".

References

{{reflist
Judgement of the European Court of 12 June 2012 on Application no. 29518/10
European Court of Human Rights cases involving Slovakia Antiziganism in Slovakia Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights Romani in Slovakia