Human Rights Monitoring Institute

Today, HRMI hosted a meeting of Lithuanian human rights NGOs with the Director of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) Morten Kjaerum. Before meeting with Lithuanian politicians and State officials, Morten Kjaerum wanted to introduce the Agency to non-State human rights actors and to get first-hand information about the problems Lithuania is facing in the area of human rights.

Yesterday’s press conference held at the BNS Press Centre and organised by MEP Leonidas Donskis featured Dainius Pūras, Chair of the HRMI Board, Henrikas Mickevičius, Executive Director of HRMI, and Darius Kuolys, Director of the Civil Society Institute.

Last Friday, journalist and director Audrius Lelkaitis has received a prestigious Vytautas Gedgaudas award by the Lithuanian Journalists’ Union and the National Association of Journalist Creators for his documentary “Vilnius Ghetto 2009”. The documentary was produced by HRMI within the project Closer Look at Multiple Discrimination, funded by the EU Progress programme.

This week Henrikas Mickevicius, HRMI Executive Director, attends the international conference in Vienna devoted to the discussion of future plans and priorities of the Fundamental Rights Platform - a network for cooperation and information exchange between the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and civil society. HRMI joined the Platform in 2010.

Recently, law amendments prohibiting any form of violence against children, including physical punishment, were rejected by the Lithuanian Parliament. Even though Lithuania had committed to correct the gap in national legislature and protect children from physical discipline by 2009, now, in 2010, a significant number of parliamentarians still consider violence against children to be a part of national heritage or an effective means of upbringing.