Romanian Youth Voice

The legislative proposal for volutary sterilization (Slovakia) is criticized for being aimed against roma (gipsy) comunity

The Slovak Labour Ministry recently released its draft law on socially-excluded communities that aims to create MAPS of socially-excluded communities living in poverty and suffering from other maladies linked to exclusion from mainstream society which the minister say will be used as a tool to combat marginalisation.

The Labour Ministry stated in releasing its draft law on socially-excluded communities. The draft, generally viewed by many observers as a positive.

The draft attempts, they say, to ameliorate some of the problems faced by marginalised citizens, also includes some specific proposals that several MPs from the coalition government have already objected to, such as cost-free voluntary sterilisations and contraceptives.

In addition to defining a socially-excluded community on the basis of demographic, socio-economic and educational levels, the aim of the proposed law, according to the ministry, is to “make a distinction between citizens who want to contribute to changing their living conditions by providing the necessary assistance to them to overcome social exclusion, and those who, despite the provided possibilities, do not reflect on the basic rules of how society functions and to whom the state will give only the basic security to survive”.

The draft law, though being praised for not stressing the racial or ethnic dimension of marginalised communities, caused disarray within the governing coalition soon after Nicholsonová, from the Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party, presented its details. Some MPs from the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) and the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) quickly criticised the draft law because it would introduce free access to contraceptives as well as voluntary sterilisation for residents of socially-excluded communities.

Sterilisations are a particularly sensitive topic because numerous Roma women have claimed that they were involuntarily sterilised and some have taken the issue to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg.

Deails on: http://spectator.sme.sk/articles/view/43478/2/mapping_slovakias_poor.html

SHARE OR BOOKMARK THIS POST:

01.09.2011. 21:41

Comments

Acest articol n-are nici un comentariu.