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19 December 2016
In response to reports in the media about the woman's death and complaints received regarding human rights’ violations, the Seimas Ombudsman, Augustinas Normantas, visited the Prienai Care Home. The safety of the residents was assessed, to see if there were any human rights abuses and if the personnel was prepared for extreme situations.
The Seimas Ombudsman wondered why the resident had suffocated from smoke if the personnel had taken all measures to avoid a disaster. The Seimas Ombudsman expressed doubts as to whether the staff had responded to the disaster in time, and whether the fire alarm system had been activated timely and appropriately.
In 2013, while visiting the Prienai Care Home, the Seimas Ombudsman had identified some human rights violations. These were dealt with, at the time, by the administration.
“Three years ago, I made recommendations to ensure all fire safety requirements. When providing information on the implementation of the recommendations, the care home administration assured us that the foster home was equipped with a fire safety alarm system.” The Seimas Ombudsman recalled the answer from the administration that, in case the alarm is tripped, “the employees would react rapidly.” “The crucial question, therefore, is whether the employees did not respond to the fire alarm in time, or whether it did not work. Or was it possible to avoid the death of a resident? Of course, a pre-trial investigation will provide the answers.”
9 December 2016
“Concerted efforts to achieve the goal — to ratify the Convention — a crucial step towards respect of persons with disabilities. I say respect because I am convinced that by respecting the other person you will never diminish him and if his or her rights are infringed, you will always make any effort to defend them,” said Augustinas Normantas, the head of the Seimas Ombudsmen's Office, who started a conference to observe International Human Rights Day.
At the conference co-organised by the Seimas Committee for Human Rights and the Seimas Ombudsmen’s Office, particular attention was paid to the issues associated with physical or mental disabilities and older people residing in social care institutions' rights. Participants of the conference were welcomed by spokesmen of the Seimas Viktoras Pranckietis.
Sixty-eight years ago, on December 10, 1948, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed. Through the values enshrined in this Declaration, the entire international human rights protection system was created and developed, as well as the adoption of international agreements, including a legally binding key international document — the Council of Europe’s Convention on Human Rights and Freedoms. Welcoming participants of the Conference was the Chairman of the Seimas Committee for Human Rights, Mr. Valerijus Simulikas.
8 December 2016
On violations of human rights, people tend to turn to the prosecutor's office, the police, or the media but not to non-governmental organisations. Although the general public is less confident in Lithuanian human rights bodies, confidence in the Seimas Ombudsmen's Office has almost doubled in recent years, according to the representative public poll’s survey.
Although confidence in Lithuanian human rights agencies is slight, faith in the Seimas Ombudsmen's Office has risen from 3.4 percent in 2015 to 6.3 percent this year. The survey revealed that the police and prosecutor’s office (19.5 percent) and courts (10.5 percent) were most trusted while the Consumer Protection Agency (1.6 percent) and the State Labour Inspectorate (1.6 percent) suffered the lowest confidence of the respondents.
According to information obtained from the representative public poll, conducted by the Public Opinion and Research Centre ‘Vilmorus’ at the request of the Seimas Ombudsperson's Office, people tend to trust the media more (12.5 percent) than non-governmental organisations (8 percent).
However, the percentage of those seeking help increased significantly (49.2 percent) in 2016 while as many as 84.9 percent of respondents whose rights were violated did not ask for help previous year.