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Milda Vainiute
10 January 2018
Augustinas Normantas, the Head of the Seimas Ombudsmen's Office (a National Human Rights Institution) and Viktoras Pranckietis, the Speaker of the Parliament (Seimas) met to assess the human rights situation in Lithuania. The meeting focused on the current human rights situation and the challenges the State faces. By pointing out the critical human rights issues, the Seimas Ombudsman drew the attention of the Speaker of the Seimas to the crucial role of the Parliament in ensuring human rights in the country.
A. Normantas emphasised a lack of human rights education in Lithuanian schools which results in a widespread disrespect for human rights. At the same time focused on the problems of implementation of the recommendations provided by the United Nations Committee on Persons with Disabilities.
5 December 2018
The Seimas Ombudsman has called the Parliament to avoid any initiatives limiting the independence of the national broadcaster. The Seimas Ombudsman Augustinas Normantas has urged the Parliament to avoid the initiatives that would have a political and/or economic influence on the public broadcaster, thus violating the provisions of Article 10 of the ECtHR. Without assessing the specific proposals of the Seimas temporary investigation commission, formulated in Project No. XIIIP-2656, the Seimas Ombudsmen’s Office as a national human rights institution advocates the protection of the independence of the national broadcaster.
„The right to information is a fundamental value of democracy that needs to be safeguarded. Various news in the media have a direct and indirect impact on the democratic processes of the society”, the statement reads.
The Seimas Ombudsman pointed out that the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania has emphasized that the Constitution guarantees and protects the public interest to be informed, that the constitutional freedom to unhindered search, receipt and dissemination of information and ideas is one of the foundations of an open, fair, sustainable civil society, a democratic state, it is an important pre-condition for the realization of various individual rights and freedoms established by the Constitution.
12 November 2018
The Seimas Ombudsman Augustinas Normantas and the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmila Denisova conducted a joint humanitarian monitoring mission to Donetsk and Luhansk regions on 8-9 November 2018 with an aim to observe and assess human rights situation therein.
The ombudspeople reported a lack of appropriate infrastructure at the ‘Mayorsk’ checkpoint on the contact line where around 10,000 people cross it daily. “Sometimes, they have to wait in a queue for hours,” – pointed out the ombudspeople.
It should be noted that ‘Mayorsk’ checkpoint is one of the busiest in Donbas. Russia-backed militants are regularly shelling it. In August, the checkpoint was shut down several times because of the attacks.
The delegation met the Commander of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) Serhiy Nayev who informed the international delegation about the powers of servicepersons in the JFO area, as well as about the work of checkpoints. According to him, due to a rise in the number of people crossing checkpoints, the decision was approved to increase the number of personnel at all checkpoints. Besides, at two checkpoints, namely in ‘Mariynka’ and ‘Stanytsa Luhanska’, the reconstruction of infrastructure has been carried out. The ombudspeople noted the importance of the decision on extending the working time of checkpoints when there is a large number of people.