The Prague Post obtained a draft of a report from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women that was nearing completion at press time. The report says that in addition to compensation, the government must "adopt without delay" legislative changes that ensure standards of informed consent across all state-run institutions.

It also says the government must give medical personnel and social workers training on patients' rights.

The UN is the most significant body to date to weigh in on the issue of coercive sterilization of Romany women in the Czech Republic.

The Helsinki Commission — the United States' human rights watchdog in Europe — gave a report to Congress last month that faulted the Czech government's handling of the issue.

More than 80 Romany women have filed complaints with the Czech ombudsman since 2004 saying doctors sterilized them without informed consent.

Cases date from 1986 to 2004 and form the basis of a sweeping report from the ombudsman released last December that found merit in many of the cases, and called on the government to look into the matter.

The ombudsman recommended many of the actions the UN is now focusing on.

"There have been no changes introduced in reaction to the ombudsman's report," spokeswoman Anna Šabatová said Sept. 1.

The Health Ministry says many of the UN's conclusions are "without merit and misleading."

In some cases, hospitals and physicians failed to apply the country's laws relating to sterilization and informed consent, ministry spokeswoman Karla Kubíková said in a statement. But cases of sterilization "were not motivated by ethical or racial motives," she said.

Doctors are starting to acknowledge that patients have not always been well informed about medical procedures such as sterilization.

"Ten years ago, information provided to a patient was on a different level than it is now," said Richard Spousta, head gynecologist at Ostrava City Hospital, where some Romany women say they were sterilized.