Human Rights Monitoring Institute

Today, Kestutis Cilinskas, HRMI Board Chair, and Henrikas Mickevicius, HRMI Executive Director, issued a public statement expressing deep concern about the recent ruling by the Constitutional Court.

Human Rights Monitoring Institute announced the annual Human Rights Shame League of the year. Lists of the most infamous actions and comments by politicians, state officials and institutions that are either in direct violation of human rights or run against human rights principles have been announced in an ironic manner since 2004.

On December 4 at the Reval Hotel Lietuva, HRMI and their partners launched Human Rights Awareness Month 2006. During the event, HRMI presented the results and conclusions of the recent public opinion poll on the human rights situation in Lithuania, acknowledged the winners of the national essay competition among high school students, and recognized the first winner of the Human Rights Champion award.

At a press conference earlier today, Human Rights Monitoring Institute presented findings and conclusions of the trial observations conducted by HRMI in 2005-2006. Henrikas Mickevicius, HRMI Executive Director, and representatives of the civic movement Citizens Cluster, Jonas Kronkaitis and Romas Sakadolskis, addressed numerous questions related to the Lithuanian judiciary.

For the second year in a row, HRMI announced December as the Human Rights Awareness Month and organized a series of events and actions. The primary target of this year’s awareness raising campaign is Lithuanian youth. HRMI believes that enhancing the ability of young Lithuanians to understand and use human rights is the most efficient means for the consolidation of democracy.