Ombudsman Welcomes Plan to Address Compensation for Unlawful Sterilisations

Bratislava, 19 July (TASR) - Ombudsman Robert Dobrovodsky has welcomed the Justice Ministry's intention to submit a draft bill on one-off financial compensation for victims of unlawful sterilisations to the government at its session in December, but he views the plan with caution, as previous legislative initiatives did not result in the adoption of such a law. Dobrovodsky said that even in his 2025 annual activity report he had to note that despite the announced legislative intent, the draft bill had not yet been submitted and compensation for victims remained an unresolved challenge. "After decades of waiting, what matters is not merely the announcement of another date, but whether it is actually met and followed by the adoption of effective legislation," stated Dobrovodsky. According to him, the parameters of the proposed compensation mechanism will be important, as it must be designed in such a way as to make it accessible in a dignified manner for those concerned, without exposing them to secondary victimisation. Sterilisation performed without free, prior and genuinely informed consent represents one of the most serious violations of bodily integrity and human dignity, stated Dobrovodsky. "It interferes with the right to private and family life, reproductive autonomy and the ability to make decisions about one's own parenthood," he noted, adding that the consequences cannot be reversed. In his view, only the adoption of an effective compensation mechanism can complete the process, with the state not only acknowledging its own failures but also accepting responsibility. Dobrovodsky has no information suggesting that a systematic practice of unlawful sterilisation in the form or to the extent documented in the past is currently taking place in Slovakia. "However, this doesn't mean that we can give up on monitoring the issue," he stressed, noting that the legislation in force since 2004 has introduced substantially stricter conditions for performing sterilisations. The Office of the Public Defender of Rights has been addressing the issue of unlawful sterilisations for more than two decades. Given the time that has passed, Dobrovodsky said he sees a growing need to resolve the matter. The Justice Ministry has confirmed to TASR that it plans to submit the draft bill to the government at its session in December with the aim of creating a special mechanism for providing one-off financial compensation to persons who were illegally sterilised between 1966 and 2004. jrg