Today, Human Rights Monitoring Institute (HRMI) jointly with the SOS Children’s Villages Lithuania and the Centre for Equality Advancement made a submission to the UN Human Rights Council on the occasion of Lithuania’s second Universal Periodic Review (UPR).
The submission expands on the human rights issues around domestic and gender-based violence, human trafficking, right to legal capacity, and child rights including the situation of minor victims and witnesses of crimes, legal regulation of corporal punishment, and the process of transition from institutional to family-based care.
Lithuania’s review will take place during the 26th session of the UPR working group, in the beginning of November 2016. The final recommendations are expected to be published by the end of 2016. Recommendations for Lithuania made during the first UPR session in 2011 can be accessed here.
The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique process which involves a periodic review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States. It provides an opportunity for all States to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to overcome challenges to the enjoyment of human rights. Each country’s review is based are: 1) information provided by the State under review; 2) information contained in the reports of independent human rights experts and groups (Special procedures), human rights treaty bodies, and other UN entities; 3) information from other stakeholders including national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations.
