Slovak Republic
ENTRY INTO FORCE of the European Convention on Human Rights
1 January 1993
Number of implemented cases*
457
Examples
Forced sterilisation of Roma woman leads to stricter rules on consent to treatment
V.C. was a victim of forced sterilisation, a practice that persisted in Slovakia for decades, disproportionately affecting Roma women. The European court ruled that the procedure, carried out whilst V.C. was giving birth, amounted to ill-treatment. Slovakia brought in new rules on patients’ consent to treatment after it emerged that many other Roma women had been unlawfully sterilised.
Slovak Republic
Justice for the mother of two murdered children
Dana Kontrová repeatedly warned the police that her husband was violent and unstable. One day the police failed to take action after being told the man was threatening his family with a shotgun. Two days later he murdered his children before committing suicide. The European court ruled that the authorities had failed in their duty to protect the children, violating the right to life.
Suspicions of a biased judge lead to reforms to protect a fair legal system
DMD Group was involved in a valuable legal claim against other companies. A judge in charge of allocating cases arranged to hear the claim himself, then abruptly dismissed it. DMD Group suspected the judge had deliberately arranged to reject their case. The European court said that the rules allowing the judge to control the case had been unfair – leading to reforms to the justice system.
Reforms introduced after police failed to properly investigate a racist attack
One night in the village of Gánovce-Filice, Roma villagers were beaten with baseball bats and iron bars by other locals. The European court ruled that the authorities failed to properly investigate or punish those responsible. The case was re-opened, and legal changes were made to help the authorities tackle racist crimes.
* This figure includes all judgments and decisions from the European Court of Human Rights (including friendly settlements) concerning which the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers has decided that all necessary follow-up measures have been taken. Source: the database of the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the ECHR, HUDOC-EXEC.