After years of waiting, unlawfully sterilized women may finally see compensation from the Czech government. Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier, in cooperation with the Czech Helsinki Committee, is preparing a draft law that will grant these women financial restitution ranging from 3,500 to 5,000 euros.

"The aim is to make compensation for a severe state interference with the victims' physical integrity, which took place without their consent," said Mr. Dienstbier's spokeswoman, Jarmila Balážová. The specific form of the draft law is still to be developed in cooperation with other ministries.

“The good name of the Czech Republic”

Czech Helsinki Committee Director Lucie Rybová and Elena Gorolová of the Association of Women Harmed by Sterilisation estimate that almost a thousand women could apply for the money.

"It is also a matter of preserving the good name of the Czech Republic and it should face this problem with dignity," said Mr. Dienstbier in February.

The Government Council for Human Rights recommended financial compensation of the illegal sterilization of women to the government in February 2012. The Council urged the Ministers of Finance, Labor and Social Affairs, Justice and Health to submit a compensation proposal by December 31, 2013. The government of Prime Minister Petr Nečas did not achieve this, as it ended prematurely with his resignation in 2013.

Two years ago, the Government Council for Human Rights proposed that every illegally sterilized woman should get about 3,500 euros. The compensation is available to women sterilized between 1972-1991, at which time a decree was implemented that capped payment to these victims at 10,000 Czech crowns (roughly 350 euros).

Roma targeted

The Czech Helsinki Committee, which has already prepared a similar draft law in last December, has posted a call to all the injured women on its website, though only a few dozen have since replied.

Compensation was previously proposed by the late ombudsman Otakar Motejl in 2005, to whom about ninety women submitted complaints. The government of Jan Fischer issued an apology to these women in 2009.

The situation has been heavily criticized by the European Roma Rights Centre, as the sterilization program targeted women of Roma ethnicity as a way to control the birth rate of the country's Roma minority.

From a criminal standpoint, most cases are now beyond the statute of limitation for this crime.