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Bratislava Slovakia’s government has officially apologised for forced sterilisations of Roma women over decades. The country’s ruling coalition issued a statement on Wednesday condemning the years of human rights violations and apologized to those affected, the TASR state news agency reported. The number of sterilisations can only be estimated but at least several thousand women were affected, the government’s Roma representative said on her official website. According to the government, forced sterilisations were carried out between 1966 and 1989 with the aim of limiting the number of children born to the Roma minority group. But even after the fall of communism, the government admits Roma women were unlawfully pressured in clinics between 1990 and 2004 to agree to sterilisation after having children. Human rights organisations and the Council of Europe have been demanding for years that Slovakia admit to the years of systematic human rights violations against the Roma and compensate the victims. (dpa)
