Slovakia in dock over sterilisation of Roma

Europe's human rights court opened a hearing yesterday into a Roma woman's allegation that she was wrongly and forcibly sterilised at a state-run hospital in her native Slovakia because of her ethnicity.

The case at the European Court of Human Rights centres on allegations that a semi-official policy of forced sterilisation of "Gypsies" - a term disliked by many Roma - in eastern Europe during the Communist era lingered in some areas after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

Other similar cases are pending before the European Court, but this is the first to reach the hearing stage, said Tracey Turner-Tretz, a court spokeswoman.

The complaint brought by the woman against Slovakia's government centres on the claim that she was sterilised after giving birth in 2000 to her second child by Caesarean section. She was identified only as "VC" and said to be about 30 years old.

The woman alleges that in the final stages of labour, she was told by staff at the Presov hospital in eastern Slovakia if she wanted to have more children, either she or the baby would die, the court said in a statement. Scared, in pain and confused about the meaning of sterilisation, she signed a consent form, the court said.

"She also claims that her Roma ethnicity - clearly stated in her medical record - played a decisive role in her sterilisation," the statement said. "In particular," the statement added, "she was placed in the so-called 'Gypsy room' and was not allowed to use the same bathrooms and toilets as non-Roma women."

Hospital managers claimed the sterilisation was conducted on medical grounds - due to the risk of a uterus rupture - and denied her claim that she was segregated away from non-Roma patients. National courts and investigators in Slovakia did not turn up any wrongdoing by hospital personnel.

A verdict is not expected for several weeks.