- STRATEGIC LITIGATION SERVICE
Strategic litigation
The Human Rights Monitoring Institute initiates strategic cases to address key issues in the application of the law and to develop legal precedents to protect and strengthen human rights. Strategic litigation helps people to defend their rights in court, while seeking systemic change that positively affects society. HRMI’s strategic litigation portfolio covers a wide range of cases addressing human rights violations. If you have experienced a human rights violation that may have a systemic impact on the rights of others, please contact us at hrmi (et) hrmi.lt.
- Case example: A resident of a building installed CCTV cameras in the main staircase and on the exterior walls of the building, claiming that he wanted to protect his own property and that of the other residents. Residents of the house were practically unable to enter their flats without being caught by the cameras.
- Objective: To ensure that CCTV cameras are used only with the consent of the residents or in a way that does not infringe their right to privacy.
- Result: The Court ruled that CCTV cameras installed without the consent of the residents of an apartment building violate their right to privacy.
- Case example: the Migration Department unlawfully and unjustifiably failed to examine an asylum application submitted by a Cuban national at the Lithuanian Embassy.
- Purpose: The aim of this case was to correct shortcomings in the application of the law in Lithuania’s migration and asylum system and to change the flawed practices of the institutions.
- Result: The Vilnius Regional Administrative Court found that the Department had failed to comply with the deadlines for examining an asylum application, and had failed to inform the applicant when a decision on his application was expected. Furthermore, the Court noted that the Department did not react when the applicant was informed that he could no longer remain in Belarus, and in fact ignored him and did not cooperate.
- Case example: the Human Rights Monitoring Institute appealed to the Public Information Ethics Commission, the Inspector of Journalists’ Ethics and the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson regarding the publication “How to recognize a whore?” published in the news portal “lrytas.lt”, which was derogatory to women.
- Goal: To combat discrimination and hate speech in the media and ensure women’s dignity and equal opportunities.
- Result: Public Information Ethics Commission declared the publication unethical and degrading to women and ordered the news portal to remove it.
