Barbora Bukovská is a Czech-Slovak human rights attorney and activist, known originally for her work on racial discrimination of

Romani people {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , po ...

the Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

and

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, 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 west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

, and later for free speech advocacy.

Advocacy

Roma rights

Bukovská first worked as a human rights attorney with the Czech non-governmental organizations Czech Helsinki Committee, Nadace Tolerance and Poradna pro občanství. Before anti-discrimination laws were adopted, she initiated the first Czech

strategic litigation Strategic litigation, also known as impact litigation, is the practice of bringing lawsuits intended to affect societal change. Impact litigation cases may be class action lawsuits or individual claims with broader significance, and may rely on st ...

cases concerning discrimination against Romani people in access to public services, housing, employment and within the criminal justice system, and used the courts to bring a change in the law. In 2001, by coincidence, she uncovered a practice of

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

of Romani women in Slovakia. To pursue justice for victims, she founded the Center for Civil and Human Rights,

Košice Košice is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of approximately 230,000, Košice is the second-largest cit ...

, Slovakia. In 2003, she published her findings about this practice in a controversial report "Body and Soul", for which she was criminally prosecuted by the Slovak Government. The Slovak Government rejected the report as unfounded; but it was widely supported and backed up internationally, including by the U.S. Congress Helsinki Commission, the

Commissioner for Human Rights The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights is an independent and impartial non-judicial institution established in 1999 by the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, to promote awareness of and respect for human rights in the council's 46 ...

of the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

and others. Since then, she has been representing victims of this practice in the courts. In 2009, she won a case, '' K.H. and Others vs. Slovakia'' at the

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

(ECHR), concerning the access of forcibly sterilized women to their medical documents. Subsequently, she won several cases at the ECHR concerning forced sterilizations, most importantly: * On 8 November 2011, the case '' V. C. vs. Slovakia'', which was described as ground-breaking. * On 8 February 2012, the case '' N. B. vs. Slovakia'', which concerned the sterilization of a minor. * On 13 November 2012, the case '' I.G. and Others vs. Slovakia'', in which the Court reaffirmed its earlier position but also, for the first time, found that the Slovak authorities had failed to properly investigate the crimes committed by staff at the concerned hospitals; this factor had not been addressed in earlier cases. Other cases were litigated and won at the Slovak courts. She also represented a forcibly sterilized Roma woman from the Czech Republic at the European Court in ''R.K. vs the Czech Republic''.

Rights of people with disabilities

From 2006 to 2008, Bukovská was a legal director of the

Mental Disability Advocacy Center The Mental Disability Advocacy Center (MDAC) is an international human rights organisation founded in Hungary in 2002. It is headquartered in Budapest. Description The Mental Disability Advocacy Center (MDAC) is an international human rights or ...

. She initiated and litigated many high-profile cases at the European Court against

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

concerning the rights of people with mental health disabilities. Most important were ''S. vs Estonia'' (concerning involuntary admission to a psychiatric clinic), ''Ryabov v. Russia', Plesó vs. Hungary'' (concerning forced committal to a psychiatric hospital for "prevention treatment"), ''Bures vs. the Czech Republic''( in which the European Court stated that unauthorized use of restraint in psychiatric hospital constituted inhuman and degrading treatment), ''Sykora vs. the Czech Republic'' (concerning the removal of the legal capacity and detention in a psychiatric hospital) and ''Stankov vs. Bulgaria'' ''(''concerning deprivation of legal capacity and forced placement in a social care institution). In 2006, she published another controversial paper on the exploitation of the suffering of victims of human rights violations by international human rights organizations at the Cairo conference of the

Open Society Institute Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is an American grantmaking network founded by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with the s ...

; the paper was later re-published by PILnet: The Global Network for Public Interest Law, and Sur Journal.

Free speech

Since 2009, Bukovská has been working for ARTICLE 19, an international free speech organization. Bukovská is a member of the Expert group against SLAPPs (strategic litigation against public participation) as an individual expert appointed by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

; and the Transatlantic High-Level Working Group on Content Moderation Online and Freedom of Expression, co-chaired by Susan Ness, Former Member of

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

and

Marietje Schaake Maria Renske "Marietje" Schaake (; born 28 October 1978) is a Dutch people, Dutch politician who served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from the Netherlands between 2009 and 2019. She is a member of Democrats 66, part of the Alliance o ...

, former member of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

. In August 2013, together with Gavin MacFadyen, and

Julian Assange Julian Paul Assange ( ; Hawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. He came to international attention in 2010 after WikiLeaks published a series of News leak, leaks from Chels ...

, she founded Courage Foundation, originally the Journalistic Source Protection Defence Fund. Bukovská served on the Foundation Board till November 2016. In this period, Courage Foundation supported legal defense and advocacy for

Edward Snowden Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is a former National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence contractor and whistleblower who leaked classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programs. Born in 1983 in Elizabeth ...

(

NSA The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...

whistleblower),

Jeremy Hammond Jeremy Alexander Hammond (born January 8, 1985), also known by his online moniker sup_g, is an American anarchist activist and former computer hacker from Chicago. He founded the computer security training website HackThisSiteLuman, Stuart. ''Chi ...

(

Stratfor Strategic Forecasting Inc., commonly known as Stratfor, is an American strategic intelligence publishing company founded in 1996. Stratfor's business model is to provide individual and enterprise subscriptions to Stratfor Worldview, its online p ...

hacktivist Hacktivism (or hactivism; a portmanteau of '' hack'' and ''activism''), is the use of computer-based techniques such as hacking as a form of civil disobedience to promote a political agenda or social change. A form of Internet activism with roo ...

), Matt DeHart, Lauri Love and

Chelsea Manning Chelsea Elizabeth Manning (born Bradley Edward Manning, December 17, 1987) is an American activist and whistleblower. She is a former United States Army soldier who was convicted by court-martial in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage ...

Honours and awards

Bukovská received a Woman of the World Award from American magazine

Marie Claire ''Marie Claire'' (stylized in all lowercase; ) is a French international monthly magazine first published in France in 1937. Since then various editions are published in many countries and languages. The feature editions focus on women aro ...

in 2004.Article: Women of the world awards: 10 women. $50,000. One common goal.(women of... AccessMyLibrary - Promoting library advocacy

Personal life

She is the niece of

John Bukovsky John Bukovsky ( Slovak: Ján Bukovský), SVD, named Ján Fukna at birth (18 January 1924 – 18 December 2010), was a Slovakia-born American prelate of the Catholic Church who worked in the diplomatic service of the Holy See. Biography Bukovsky ...

, the first

papal nuncio An apostolic nuncio (; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international organization. A nuncio is a ...

in the Russian Federation. She volunteers for the

Catholic Worker Movement The Catholic Worker Movement is a collection of autonomous communities founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in the United States in 1933. Its aim is to "live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus Christ". One of its guiding prin ...

References

External links

Harvard Law Today

Hearing of the case of V.C. vs Slovakia at the European Court on 22 March 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bukovska, Barbora Living people Reproductive rights activists 21st-century Slovak lawyers Slovak feminists Year of birth missing (living people) Slovak women lawyers Czechoslovak lawyers 20th-century Slovak lawyers 20th-century women lawyers 21st-century women lawyers