 In 2009 the women, assisted by the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, the Namibia Women's Health Network and the Legal Assistance Centre, sued the government for damages, claiming that sterilisation without informed consent violates a number of rights.The women argued that the sterilisation infringed their constitutional rights to life, liberty, dignity and to found a family, as well as various common law and personality rights as it diminished their marriage prospects and ability to bear children, impacted on their bodily and psychological integrity and caused shock, pain and suffering and emotional anguish.The women also argued that their rights to equality and freedom from discrimination were violated because the sterilisation was as a result of their HIV status.