In Norway, Germany and Czechoslovakia, state-sponsored programmes of involuntary sterilization had existed for some time in the past. They were based on and resulted in the stigmatisation and degradation of certain persons who suffered encroachments into their bodily integrity and thus a serious limitation of fundamental individual and human rights. At some point in time, these programmes became the object of socio-political contestation, claims for reparations, rehabilitation and apology. The paper examines processes of framing and problematisation within the politics of reparations for involuntary sterilisations, in particular discussing which factors stood in the way with regard to the acknowledgement of involuntary sterilization as state-injustice and with regard to the rehabilitation and compensation of the victims. Empirical analysis shows that a "group paradigm" prevalent within the politics of reparations (centring on atrocities committed against groups defined e.g. as ''minority'', ''indigenous culture'', ''race'') poses serious problems for victims'' claims: for example, victims who can not or do not want to refer to group status remain invisible and are excluded from compensations. Rather than directed at pre-set groups, programmes of involuntary sterilization can be described as practices of normalization where different norm-related categorizations shape the form of stigmatisation and discrimination practices. At the same time, they follow an individualizing (Foucault) logic rather than a unifying one. However, to think of the victims only as individuals obscures the systematic character of involuntary sterilizations programmes, makes political contestation of the injustice impossible, and leads to the individualization the whole process of coming to terms with the past.
