Human Rights Monitoring Institute

Today, in the BNS Press Conference Room, the HRMI has announced the results of the public survey confirming that the issues of human rights are important to the Lithuanian community. The survey has evaluated the institutions that violate human rights to the broadest extent, the human rights that are violated most often and the social groups that are most discriminated. 
 
Furthermore, the public opinion on the ratification of the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe was surveyed, that is, how people evaluate hasty actions of the politicians and the significance of the very treaty. The level of tolerance for the interference into private life in the spheres at the moment relevant to Lithuania was assessed, too. It was also attempted to evaluate the attitude of the general society towards people with mental disorders. Further, the survey investigated the extent to which the community is aware of who in Lithuania determines whether a person is guilty for the commitment of a crime.

Almost every other respondent (44.9%) believes that the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe should have been ratified by putting it on a referendum. It has to be noted that the said opinion of the Lithuanian population coincides with the view of different organisations and experts. “Although people were not provided with the text of the ratified treaty, the majority of citizens managed to feel the significance and recency of this treaty expressed in its wording,” – says K. Čilinskas. “The Constitution shall coordinate foreign and security policies, economic and employment policies, monetary and trade policies of all Member States. Other issues set forth in the Constitution, including the right to conclude international treaties on behalf of all Member States, given that these treaties are necessary for the assurance of the Union’s competence, shall also be vested in the Union.”

“So far no arguments for such hurry were provided. Moreover, hasty ratification by the majority of votes in the Seimas will not guarantee stable membership in the EU since at the occurrence of certain political conjecture this treaty could be likewise denounced by a simple majority of votes,” – emphasises H. Mickevičius.

It was determined that the right to the impartial court (42.2% of respondents) and the right to personal security (34.7% of respondents) are violated to the largest extent. “As many as 62% of the respondents* are likely to believe that the bailiffs violate human rights. Public opinion coincides with the defects observed by both the Human Rights Monitoring Institute and the Centre for Legal Projects and Research in the legal instruments regulating the operation of bailiffs. The Instructions of Decision Enforcement, approved by the Minister of Justice, are especially biased and useful for the bailiffs instead of serving public interests,” – claims K. Čilinskas.

The survey showed that, despite the actions taken by the Public Prosecutor’s Department and the Special Investigation Service against the alleged corruption of certain politicians, people hold that the said institutions violate human rights: 42.9% of the respondents believe that the Public Prosecutor’s Department violates human rights, while 38.3% think that the Special Investigation Service does the same. Furthermore, 52% of the respondents maintain that the courts violate human rights. In the opinion of K. Čilinskas, this proves that in principle people feel insecure, their rights are not defended, which only confirms low trust in the Lithuanian courts among the society. Every third respondent thinks that in Lithuania the issue of the person’s guilt is decided not by the court.

The survey showed that elderly people experience the crudest discrimination in their respect and violation of their rights. “That is indeed an urgent issue that still has not received necessary attention. Elderly people face a number of discriminating effects in the fields of employment, health insurance, and commodity and service provision. I would also like to stress intensifying brutal waves of victimisations in Lithuanian steadings and villages,” – says Dr. Rokas Uscila, the Research Director of the HRMI.

Dr. Vladas Gaidys, the Director of Market and Public Opinion Research Centre VILMORUS, noted that speaking about women’s discrimination, women raising small children feel the most discriminated. He also marked out young people with any sort of disability. He claims this group is discriminated in the fields of education and employment.

The survey also assessed the level of tolerance for the interference into private life in the spheres relevant to Lithuania at the moment, including the use of person’s ID, privacy and publicity issue of sexual orientation, and the issue of disclosing telephone conversations. The level of tolerance for the interference into private life of the respondents and public figures was divided into two categories.

About 80% of the respondents have negative opinion about the chance that their telephone conversations would be disclosed to public, however, only every fifth respondent believed that the disclosure of telephone conversations of a well-known politician would violate his/her right to a private life. “For the majority of people the decisive criterion for the admissibility of private life restriction is the person’s status in the community. The restriction level for a well-known politician, i.e. public figure, is rather low. That illustrates the distrust of Lithuanian population in the politicians,” – maintains Henrikas Mickevičius, the Director of the HRMI.

According to H. Mickevičius, in the event a case concerning the disclosure of telephone conversations went to the European Court of Human Rights, Lithuania most probably would fail at the first threshold since it would not be able to specify the Law that provides for the disclosure of telephone conversations.

Quite a number of the respondents (about 60%) would not like the sexual orientation of their child to be made public. H. Mickevičius says: “This proves that this issue is gaining an important place in the society: people are aware of it and start realising that it might affect a lot of families; on the other hand, the majority of people (at least, undoubtedly the majority of the survey respondents) would like irregular sexual orientation to remain private. The reasons are rather obvious since quite a few surveys have already showed that ours was a homophobic society.”
 
Only 22% of the respondents see the disclosure of personal data, specifically, personal ID, as a problem. It is hardly surprising that in this kind of setting public circulation of personal IDs has become trivial. “Last year, the HRMI has drew the attention of the public, the experts and the politicians to this issue, however, the situation did not change. Probably, as is often the case in Lithuania, we will have to wait until some major trouble, something like bank crash, strikes to take to any measures,” speaks H. Mickevičius.

Dr. V.Gaidys also stressed that the right to lead undisturbed private life was less important to the countryside residents and people earning low-income, however, this only speaks about their deprived social status when the worry about the elementary surviving obscures other human rights.

The stereotypical discriminating attitude towards mentally disabled persons continues to persist in Lithuania. More than half of the respondents (51.8%) consider that mentally-challenged people should reside in specially-adapted care institutions (psychoneurological boarding-houses) where they would be under permanent supervision. “It is generally believed that these persons are dangerous for the people around and their rights can be therefore restricted. The politics of all the Member States of the EU, concerning the mentally disabled people, are, on the contrary, seeking to close huge care (boarding) institutions and to provide community services instead,” claims Dr. Rokas Uscila, the Research Director of the HRMI, commenting the survey results.

* people who believe that the bailiffs violate human rights on the whole (including 16.2% who think that the bailiffs violate human rights to a very large extent, and 37.8% who consider that the bailiffs violate human rights most of all entities).

Please find the slides presented in the Press Conference here.

The Press Conference was arranged by the Human Rights Monitoring Institute. Conference time and date: 9 am, Monday, 17 January 2005. Venue: BNS Press Conference Room. Speakers: Henrikas Mickevičius, Director of the HRMI; Rokas Uscila, Research Director of the HRMI; Kęstutis Čilinskas, Board Chairman of the HRMI; and Vladas Gaidys, Director of Market and Public Opinion research Centre VILMORUS. The data of this survey shall be used for the second regular overview of human rights in 2004, issued by the Human Rights Monitoring Institute.

Photo here.

Related publications:
Delfi1, Delfi2, Omni1, Omni2, Omni3, LRT.