Civil rights group urges Czech government to act on report on sterilisation of Gypsies

Civil rights groups have criticised the Czech government for failing to follow up on a damning report into coercive sterilisation practices.

The report, published by the Czech ombudsman, Otakar Motejl, two months ago, says that at least 50 Czech women were unlawfully sterilised between 1973 and 2004 and should be awarded financial compensation (BMJ 2006;332:138, 21 Jan).

The report came after a year long investigation into complaints filed by 87 mostly Gypsy women that they had been coerced into sterilisations. In his findings the ombudsman said that under the communist regime social workers often offered a one-off payment equivalent …