The Human Rights Monitoring Institute (HRMI) has released a public statement to deny any association with a Labor Party letter on the human rights and political situation in Lithuania. HRMI also refutes the Party’s plans to use HRMI’s annual Overview of the Human Rights Situation in Lithuania as the basis for a discussion on the human rights situation at the European Parliament.
HRMI announced that it disagrees with the Labor Party’s interpretation of the human rights situation in Lithuania, an interpretation that presents the Labor Party as victims of the human rights violations cited in the letter. In addition, the Institute claims no responsibility for the English translation of the Overview of the Human Rights Situation in Lithuania for the Year 2005, which HRMI did not authorize.
HRMI states that the worsening of the human rights situation in Lithuania over the years 2004-2005 was linked to the Labor Party’s membership in the governing coalition and majority in the Parliament over that period of time.
“The position, actions, and official statements of Labor Party politicians have contributed significantly to the worsening human rights situation in Lithuania, including the violations that the Labor Party cited in the letter and used as the basis for organizing the discussion in the European Parliament,” stated HRMI Chairman of the Board Kestutis Cilinskas and HRMI Director Henrikas Mickevicius, the authors of the statement.
The full text of the public statement can be found here.
More about the public statement (in Lithuanian) can be found on the news portals Delfi, Omni, Lrytas.
© 2012 Human Rights Monitoring Institute