Women’s Circles, along with Fenestra and the Center for Civil and Human Rights, gave a shadow report to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. The shadow report draws attention to the shortcomings and discrimination of women in Slovakia in the areas that organizations address in their activities:
Fenestra, founded in 1996, is a grass-roots women’s NGO. Our vision is a society, in which every woman is free to make decisions about her life and fully exercise her rights and freedoms without violence and discrimination. Apart from providing direct help and support to women – survivors of intimate partner violence in our counselling centre, Fenestra has had a long history of advocating for women’s rights, awareness raising and campaigning, training of professionals and developing multi-agency cooperation in the field of preventing and eliminating violence against women. Fenestra is a member of the European network Women Against Violence Europe
The Center for Civil and Human Rights (Poradňa pre občianske a ľudské práva, “Poradňa”) from 2002 has addressed discrimination against Roma minority in Slovakia in various areas of public life. It has been particularly active in the protection of reproductive rights of Roma women. Poradňa pursues its mission by human rights monitoring, strategic litigation as well advocacy activities. It closely links its work with extensive cooperation with many local Roma women activists.
Women’s Circles (Ženské kruhy) founded in 2011 by women is an independent civic association focusing on the field of maternity care and the rights therein. One of the goals is that respect, dignity, and the freedom of choice for women in pregnancy and childbirth would become self-evident.
In the section devoted to obstetric care, we drew attention to:
- Ill-treatment of women and new-borns in facility-based childbirth
- COVID-19 pandemic impact on reproductive healthcare
- Poor access to reproductive healthcare and information for women from Ukraine with temporary shelter status
- Absence of services for women in the postpartum period
