Sweden to atone for transsexuals’ forced sterilisation

Stockholm: Sweden is planning to pay compensation to transsexuals who were forced to undergo sterilisation during their sex change procedure, the health minister said.

The government will introduce a bill which would award 225,000 kronor (RM113,030) to every person who was legally compelled to accept sterilisation in order to complete a sex change, Health Minister Gabriel Wikstrom told the Dagens Nyheter daily on Saturday.

Between 1972 and 2013, the law made sterilisation obligatory for transsexuals who wanted their sex change to be officially recognised by the authorities.

But in December 2012, a Swedish court ruled that the practice was unconstitutional and violated the European Convention on Human Rights.

“The demand for sterilisation which existed previously laid out a vision from which today’s society wishes to distance itself and the government believes it was wrong to demand it,” Wikstrom said.

The move to change the law was hailed as a world’s first by the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights (RFSL).

But the group said it would push for a higher level of compensation.

“The sum should be at a level which constitutes a real recognition of the excesses of the state,” said RFSL president Frida Sandegard.

In 2013, nearly 150 Swedish transsexuals demanded an official apology from the state and compensation worth 5 million euros (RM24mil) – about 34,000 euros (RM163,200) each.

RFSL said the practice had affected some 800 people.

Until now, the government has refused, despite the fact that in 1999 Sweden had paid compensation of more than 20,000 euros (RM96,000) to 230,000 victims of forced sterilisation under a eugenics programme which was in force between 1935 and 1996.