Dentons has successfully represented an unlawfully sterilized woman in administrative court proceedings against the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic regarding a denied claim for compensation and subsequent appeal on a pro bono basis.
According to the firm, "between 1966 and 2012, thousands of women – mostly Roma – were pressured by the Czechoslovak and subsequently Czech authorities into signing consent forms for sterilization, often without being informed about what they were signing or the full implications of doing so. This practice was widely condemned by the UN and human rights organizations. In an effort to atone for past injustices, in 2021, the Czech government passed Act No. 297/2021 Coll. to offer compensation to women who had undergone unlawful sterilization."
In this specific case, following the Ministry of Health’s rejection of the claimant’s compensation claim, Dentons represented the claimant in an administrative action against the ministry’s decision and the subsequent decision of the Minister of Health on the filed appeal. According to the firm, the ministry’s review of the claim resulted in a decision awarding the claimant compensation of CZK 300,000 in accordance with Act No. 297/2021 Coll., on providing a lump sum of money to persons sterilized in violation of the law, with the firm adding that "the landmark judgment of the Municipal Court in Prague is the first in which the courts have substantively addressed the conditions that had to be met under the law in force at the time of the procedure in order for the sterilization to be considered lawful. The Municipal Court in Prague concluded, among other things, that the absence of instructions on the degree of reparability of the sterilization procedure is a ground for granting compensation under Act No. 297/2021 Coll., and the Ministry of Health must consider this legal opinion in future cases."
The Dentons team included Associates Alzbeta Bohmova and Barbora Katrakova and Junior Associate Aneta Krulcova with the support of Prague pro bono Partner Jiri Tomola.
