Human Rights Monitoring Institute and the Lithuanian Journalism Center have hosted a discussion with journalists on recent manifestations of racism and intolerance. The topic have been suggested by journalists who took part in previous discussions, organized within the year-long programme funded by the Dutch Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
Moderator of the discussion – Henrikas Mickevicius, HRMI Executive Director, noted that rapidly growing xenophobic disposition and increasing rasist attacks may lead to the weakening or even disintegration of democracy in Lithuania. H. Mickevicius encouraged media to go into whys and wherefores of the process and try to spotlight the causes of these problems.
Tadas Leoncikas, the Acting Director of Ethnic Research Centre at the Social Research Institute, predicted the growth of racism and xenophobia in Lithuania. Causes of this alarming tendency are many: boost of skinhead subculture, growing immigration, economic difficulties, and increasing social inequality, among them. This creates fears and thus favorable environment for the spread of racism. T. Leoncikas emphasized that adequate legal framework for dealing with racism and consistent penal policy are critical not only for a proper reaction to but also for the prevention of racism.
Rimvydas Valentukevicius, Senior Prosecutor of the Special Investigations Department at the General Prosecutor’s Office, informed that, based on staistics, numbers of racist sallies grow. On the other hand, statistical growth is also due to the fact that racism has increasingly been receiving attention from the law enforcement agencies. In the last three years 25 persons have been convicted for instigation of racial or religious hatred.
Prosecutor believes that legal framework to prosecute racist crimes, although needs some improvement, is fairly good - the problem occurs in implementation as police officers and prosecutors alike lack knowledge and practical skills in recognizing racial criminality. The prosecutor also admitted that most racial offenses go offshore the official hatred crimes statistics and pass for hooliganism or stay undisclosed. Mr Valentukevicius informed that the legal provision has been drafted that will embed racial motive as an aggravating circumstance of any criminal offence.
The issue of racism and xenophobia have recently been addressed in media and public discussions after the attack against the Lithuanian TV star of Afro-Eastern origin and the infamous skinheads' march over the streets of Vilnius on the Independence Day when slogans reflecting racial hatred, such as "Juden raus" ("Get out, Jews") and "Lithuania without Russians", were waved around.
See more about the discussion (in Lithuanian) in news portals alfa.lt, delfi.lt, bernardinai.lt .
© 2012 Human Rights Monitoring Institute