Human Rights Monitoring Institute (HRMI) in coalition with several Lithuanian NGOs forwarded two submissions to the UN Human Rights Council on the human rights practices in the country.
On 11 October 2011, UN Human Rights Council will review the first report of Lithuania submitted for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). UPR is a unique procedure which involves a review of the human rights records of all 192 UN Member States once every four years. By the end of 2011, the UN Human Rights Council will complete the first round of country reviews.
The UPR procedure includes a possibility for non-governmental organisations to provide information and opinions to the UN Human Rights Council. HRMI together with the Center for Equality Advancement (CEA) and the Centre for Equal Rights and Social Development (CERSD) informed the UN Human Rights Council inter alia on developments related to the on-going discussion on the necessity of the National Human Rights Institution in Lithuania, on certain factors impacting the efficiency of the right to fair trial, including access to the state-guaranteed legal aid, stressed particular infringements of the right to respect for private life, and informed about questionable quality of investigation into Lithuanian participation in the CIA-run Extraordinary Rendition and Secret Detention programme.
Submission on the child‘s rights, drafted by HRMI, Children Support Centre (CSC) and Caritas Lithuania, emphasized the lack of objective data on the violence against children, the structural problems related to provision of assistance to children- victims of abuse, including victims of human trafficking, and informed about difficulties in ensuring rights of children in judicial process.
The Lithuanian Human Rights Centre, the Lithuanian Gay League, the Roma Community Centre and the Jewish Community of Lithuania have forwarded submissions the UN Human Rights Council on other human rights topics.
See the submission of HRMI, CEA and CERSD here.
See the submission of HRMI, CSC and Caritas Lithuania on child‘s rights here.
