Uzbek Groups Renew Allegations Of Government-Ordered Sterilizations

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Sexual Health / STDs;  Public Health
Article Date: 05 Mar 2010 - 5:00 PDT

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The Uzbek human rights group Najot and the Expert Working Group, an independent Uzbek think tank, alleged this week that Uzbekistan's Health Ministry has instructed government doctors to perform hysterectomies on women to help control the nation's population, the AP/Google reports. In mid-February, the Health Ministry of the former Soviet nation issued a decree ordering doctors to recommend hysterectomy as an "effective contraceptive" and to persuade "at least two women" per month to have the procedure, according to Sukhrobdzon Ismoiliv, a coordinator for Expert Working Group. Doctors who do not obey the decree face reprisals and fines, Ismoiliv said. Uzbek law does not prohibit forced sterilization, the AP/Google reports.

Ismoiliv said his group interviewed dozens of health workers throughout the country in the weeks since the decree. Khaitboy Yakubov of Najot said the organization received reports of forced sterilizations even before the decree was issued. According to a 2009 Najot report, hospital doctors often sterilize women after their second child without their consent. Many women opt to give birth at home because of rumors about the procedures, the report said.

Previous Allegations

Najot and the Expert Working Group are not the first organizations to criticize the Uzbek government over its reproductive health practices. In 2007, the United Nations Committee Against Torture reported that a "large number" of women had been sterilized or received hysterectomies against their will, often after caesarean sections. A 2006 U.S. State Department report said that "[t]orture and abuse were common" in prison facilities, including "alleged sterilization of women without notification or medical need." In 2005, Gulbakhor Turayeva, a physician and human rights advocate, alleged that surgeons were instructed to secretly perform hysterectomies on women with minor gynecological problems in one densely populated region. He was later jailed on charges of anti-government actions (Mirovalev, AP/Google, 3/2).

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