THE EUROPEAN Council considers allegations that Roma women in Slovakia were forcibly sterilized to be a closed issue, said Alvaro Gil-Robles, the European Council's human rights commissioner. The announcement was made during a December 8 meeting with Slovak Deputy Prime Minister Pál Csáky, TASR news agency wrote.
The case broke in 2001 when a report entitled "Body and Soul", published by the Centre for Reproduction Rights in New York and the Office for Civil and Human Rights in Košice, presented findings of about 140 cases of alleged sterilization of Roma women in eastern Slovakia.
Slovak courts never confirmed the truthfulness of the allegations.
