Working group to address compensation for forcibly sterilised women

The compensation for forcibly sterilised women should be addressed by a working group set up in the future, informed Prime Minister's office on Thursday. "It is in the common interest to resolve the issue concerning both the apology and compensation. A working group will be formed by the Justice and Labour ministries. However, the discussion hasn't yet been concluded," said premier's spokeswoman Ľubica Janíková. Earlier this week, the Council of Europe's Human Rights commissioner Dunja Mijatovic, has called on the Slovak Government to set up a mechanism for providing rapid and effective access to compensation for victims of the forced sterilisation. Mijatovic pointed out that sterilisation that was forced, carried out under duress or wasn't subject to full and informed consent of the victims, is currently well documented, both in terms of procedures during Communism in Czechoslovakia as well as in the 1990s and after the year 2000 in the Slovak Republic. These practices have also been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights.