Dissenting opinion of Judge Mijovic in the case of V.C. v. Slovakia, No. 18968/07, ECtHR (Former Fourth Section), 8 November 2011

Sterilization of a Roma woman amounts to gender-based and ethnic discrimination, besides ill-treatment and violation of the right to private life.

Art. 3 ECHR
Art. 8 ECHR
Art. 14 ECHR

Finding violations of Articles 3 and 8 alone, without any connection with Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination), reduces the case to the individual level, whereas it is obvious that there was a general State policy of sterilisation of Roma women under the communist regime (governed by the 1972 Sterilisation Regulation), the effects of which continued to be felt up to the time of the facts giving rise to the present case.