Human Rights Monitoring Institute

HRMI states that by declaring the mayor of Vilnius a suspect in bribery scandal Special parliamentary Commission to investigate possible corruption in Vilnius municipality has violated the principle of presumption of innocence and potentially has prevented a justice in the case.

In the run-up to International Human Rights Day on 10 December 2005, HRMI has launched a series of events and activities to consolidate the human rights culture in Lithuania.

In his article, Henrikas Mickevicius argues that the recent prolonged process of filling in the vacant position of the Prosecutor-General has been neither professional, nor transparent and democratic and proposes to review the criteria for this position as well as the procedure of appointment.

Asta Radvilaite, research coordinator of HRMI, has published an article that analyzes the efficiency, reliability and legality of biometric passports, and suggests a broader public discussion on this topic.

On October 27, Human Rights Monitoring Institute has made a public statement spotlighting the position of the European Court of Human Rights on the acceptable limits for criticism of public officials by the political opposition and stating that the attempts of Lithuanian politicians to use criminal procedure to fight criticism is threatening the independence of the judiciary.