Today, at the press conference HRMI has launched periodic overview of the human rights situation in Lithuania. The Overview is based on in-house research and monitoring, reports by international institutions and NGOs, expert opinions, and media reports.
The Overview covers the situation of fundamental political and civil rights in Lithuania during the period of 2007-2008. It reviews the implementation of the right to political participation, the right to freedom of expression, the right to respect for private life and the right to a fair trial as well as various manifestations of racism, anti-semitism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance and discrimination. The situation of a few socially vulnerable groups such as women, children, and prisoners, the disabled and medical patients in the context of human rights is analysed separately.
General conclusion of the Overview is that the human rights situation since the accession of Lithuania to the European Union has been further deteriorating. 2007-2008 witnessed:
- Spread of racism, antisemitism, xenophobia, homophobia and other forms of intolerance;
- Alarming setback in protection of the rights of socially vulnerable groups, such as children, disabled, women and others;
- Numerous infringements of the right to political participation, the right to freedom of expression, the right to respect for private life, the right to fair trial, and other basic civil and political rights which are essential for the effective functioning of democracy.
With the deterioration of the human rights situation, people‘s trust in the state institutions which should protect these rights has also decreased. A public survey conducted at the end of 2008 showed that four of five respondents believing that their rights had been infringed did not seek any remedy; about 80% of them justified the lack of action by distrust in existing institutions and mechanisms.
The year 2008 saw scientifically justified evidence of a direct relation between the alarming scope of emigration and the unsatisfactory situation of human rights in Lithuania. A survey conducted by sociologists of Vytautas Magnus University in Ireland, England, Spain and Norway showed that the reason the majority of emigrants do not return to Lithuania is not better economic opportunities in these counties, but better security, more freedom and different, more respectful, relations among people.
Among areas where Lithuania should try harder to improve the business environment and to attract more foreign investment, the experts indicate the consolidation of the rule of law, a more transparent judiciary, enhancement of property protection, improvement of public administration and other areas affected by the effective implementation of human rights.
“Despite the obvious necessity to highlight the human dimension on the political agenda, it is dominated – irrespective of prosperity or recession – by the position distinctive of immature democracies that the successful economic development of a country will itself solve the issues of such “secondary” areas as the safeguarding of human rights,” said Henrikas Mickevicius in the press conference. “The difference between a mature democratic state and other states lies first in the development of an environment where human dignity, freedom and security are respected. Such an environment provides favourable opportunities for creative self-realisation which in turn leads to the successful economic and social development of a country.”
See the Overview here.
© 2012 Human Rights Monitoring Institute