 The three women applicants had been sterilised at a public hospital when giving birth via caesarean section.The women argued that any purported consent to the sterilisation had been coerced as they had either not been told the contents of the consent forms they were signing, did not understand the medical staff, or had been told by doctors that their caesarean surgeries would only be performed if they agreed to be sterilised.All the women are HIV-positive and believe that they were stigmatised and targeted for sterilisation on the basis of their HIV status.