Free Agnes Gereb

Fantastic news! In a case brought to the European Court of Human Rights by a Hungarian woman who wasn’t able to give birth as she wanted, the Court has criticised the “permanent threat” to health professionals in Hungary.

The Court found that women’s right to choose where to give birth is protected under Article 8 of the European Convention (right to private and family life). The case is called Ternovszky v Hungary
The Court found the Hungarian law regulating home birth is confused and arbitrary. The Court stated:

‘[T]he matter of health professionals assisting home births is surrounded by legal uncertainty prone to arbitrariness. Prospective mothers cannot therefore be considered as freely benefiting from such assistance, since a permanent threat is being posed to health professionals inclined to assist home births by virtue of Government Decree no. 218/1999 as well as the absence of specific, comprehensive legislation on the matter. The lack of legal certainty and the threat to health professionals has limited the choices of the applicant considering home delivery. For the Court, this situation is incompatible with the notion of “foreseeability” and hence with that of “lawfulness”.’

How can Agnes be imprisoned for helping women fulfil their human rights? Let’s hope this judgment shames the Hungarian government into releasing her.

Agnes’ birthday is on 20 December. Please send cards to:

AGNES’ PRISON ADDRESS
Gereb Agnes
BV I. Fegyhaz
1055 Budapest,
Nagy Ignác u. 5-11.

We’ve created a petition calling for Agnes’ release. Please sign it! It will be presented to the Hungarian Embassy in London at a protest rally, date to be announced here soon…

On the subject of petitions, Professor Lesley Page of King’s College, London, yesterday presented a petition from thirty international medical experts to the Hungarian government.

On 1 January, Hungary takes over the Presidency of the European Council of Ministers. It’s vital that MEPs are told about Agnes so they can raise her case in the European Parliament.

Here’s the text of sample letter that you can send to your MEP. Please make any changes you’d like, it always makes more impact to send your own letter.

Dear xxx,

I write as one of your constituents to express my profound concern about the treatment of midwife and doctor Agnes Gereb by the Hungarian authorities. As a result of helping women given birth at home and in her birth centre, she has recently been charged with negligent malpractice and imprisoned in appalling conditions.

Women across EU member states do not all have the same level of reproductive rights. While other EU states enable women to give birth in their homes, the Hungarian government has long failed to support women in their birth choices. Hungary refuses to allow home births despite provisions in Hungarian law that give women the right to choose where to give birth. Dr Gereb has taken personal risks to support women in their choices about how they wish to give birth and is now paying a very high price.

Since respect for human dignity and respect for human rights are among the values on which the EU is founded (Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union), there are certain key principles that should be adhered to by EU member states. Hungary has breached these principles as a consequence of its treatment of Dr Gereb and its failure to provide proper care for women. In particular:

• Dr Gereb has the right to liberty and security of person: her imprisonment is unjustifiable, especially as there is no suggestion that she has deliberately caused any harm.
• Dr Gereb has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law.
• Dr Gereb has the right to be treated with dignity. She should not be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment, in particular strip searches and intrusive searches of body orifices.
• The Hungarian government should licence midwives to provide home births within a well-integrated maternity service in which women can move between midwifery-led and doctor-led care according to their needs and wishes.

Besides violating her rights under the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Dr Gereb’s arbitrary treatment by the Hungarian authorities also violates other provisions of EU law, in particular her freedom of establishment and her freedom to provide services under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

I would like to draw your attention to a letter in the Guardian from Wendy Savage and Sheila Kitzinger, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/09/home-birth-in-hungary.

To help Dr Gereb, please bring pressure to bear on the Hungarian authorities through any other mechanisms available to you as an MEP.

Kind regards,

Royal Collage of Midwives calls for release of imprisoned Hungarian midwife

Commenting on the imprisonment of Hungarian midwife Agnes Gereb, Cathy Warwick, General Secretary of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), said: “The RCM joins professional colleagues as well as other groups from across the UK, Europe and indeed the rest of the world in registering our very strong condemnation of the treatment of Agnes Gereb. We would like to call both for the release of Dr Gereb and for the introduction of legislation in Hungary which would allow midwives to perform out of hospital births.

“Agnes Gereb is a woman who has been attempting to work in the interests of women. Her treatment at the hands of the authorities is disproportionate and inhumane. She has been arrested, imprisoned and mistreated. It is grossly unjust that any woman should be treated in such a way – shackled and handcuffed and unable to see her family for more than an absolutely minimal time over a period of forty four days. The RCM along with our sister organisation the Hungarian Midwives Association calls for her release and fair treatment.

“In addition the RCM believes it is every woman’s right to choose where and how they will give birth to their baby. European-wide regulation should make it legal for midwives to work in any place that women choose to give birth. Women are aware that there is strong evidence to support out of hospital birth and in making such a choice they should not be denied the attendance of a registered midwife. The RCM calls on the Hungarian authorities to urgently address this issue.”

Here’s a sample letter you can send to the Hungarian embassy in your country. To maximise the impact, put it in your own words.

Dear Ambassador,

I am writing to protest in the strongest possible terms at the imprisonment since 8 October 2010 of Dr Agnes Gereb in a maximum security prison, and the recent extension of this term for a further 60 days. I would like to add my voice to the many calling for Agnes’ immediate release.

Dr Gereb is a renowned doctor and midwife, respected worldwide for her work on behalf of pregnant women. She has championed the right of women to choose how they give birth and has herself attended many thousands of successful home births. I understand that she has been charged with negligent malpractice and is currently detained in a maximum security prison where she has been inhumanely treated. She recently appeared in court shackled and bleeding from a wound caused by her restraints and has been subjected to strip searches.

To imprison a doctor and midwife in this way is frankly disgraceful in an EU member state and is unacceptable in any civilised country which claims to respect human rights and the rule of law.

Please make my concerns known to the Hungarian government. For your information, I shall also be contacting my MP and my MEP to take up this case.

Yours sincerely,

NAME

The Free Agnes campaign has just created this website as a central place for information and news about the campaign.

We will be regularly updating the site with the latest news.

Please share comments or contact us for more info.

The Free Agnes Campaign

Your report (Handcuffed, a midwife is led into court, 23 October is a shocking indictment of the Hungarian maternity system. Agnes Gereb, a qualified obstetrician, had her own third child at home just before she held the first home birth conference in Hungary about 20 years ago. In 2003 a group of us who attended and spoke at the second home birth conference she organised, including Dr Marsden Wagner, previously director of maternal and child health for the European region of the WHO. After the conference, we met with Hungarian ministry of health officials and senior obstetricians, who did not accept the evidence that home birth was a safe option for healthy women with an uncomplicated pregnancy. Continue reading →

Amelia Hill, guardian.co.uk, Friday 22 October 2010

Gynaecologist faces five years in Hungarian prison, prompting protests over authorities’ hardline childbirth policy

Twenty minutes after the expectant mother went into labour, the police were knocking at the door. While mother and child were taken to hospital and treated well, the midwife at the birthing centre was thrown in jail. Dr Agnes Gereb is now being kept in maximum security conditions in a Budapest prison, facing a five-year prison sentence.

Gereb, founder of the Napvilág birthing centre, is a highly experienced gynaecologist, midwife and internationally recognised home birth expert. She has successfully helped deliver 3,500 babies at home. But her reputation means nothing to the authorities in Hungary, a country that has, campaigners say, relentlessly pushed to criminalise home births and make hospital deliveries compulsory.

Continue reading →