On May 1, 2004, Lithuania became a European Union (EU) member, an event which had positive and negative consequences for the development of gender and equality policy. The government of Lithuania enacted the 2004-2006 EQUAL Program, which aims to combat inequality and discrimination in the labor market.

The government identified eleven target groups that will receive support through the program, including people with disabilities, ethnic minorities, sexual minorities, victims of trafficking, women and the long-term unemployed. The EQUAL program was ineffective in combating discrimination and inequality.[1]

Last updated: December 12, 2007

Since 2004 the main documents on reducing unemployment have been drafted by the Ministry of Social Security and Labor’s Employment and Gender Equality Department. Most policy debates centered on the issues of dividing childcare responsibilities between both parents, increasing the involvement of fathers in child-care activities, and reconciling family and work obligations. Between 2004 and 2007 a number of policy documents were adopted, including the 2005-2009 National Program on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men,[2] the National Action Plan on Employment, the 2004-2006 EU Structural Support Single Programming Document, the 2004-2006 Equal Community Initiative Program for Lithuania[3], and the 2005-2008 National Lisbon Strategy Implementation Program[4]. The programs outlined in these documents were implemented following the EU’s recommendation that Lithuania fulfill commitments made during the EU accession process to reduce unemployment and poverty and introduce initiatives to help the unemployed, of which women represent more than 60 percent. In 2005 the Government of Lithuania adopted the National Program for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men for 2005-2009 which extends the actions launched under the 2003-2004 Program on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men. The program’s main objective is to implement gender mainstreaming through concrete tasks such as changing gender-role stereotypes, reconciling family and professional life, improving employment conditions for women, facilitating gender mainstreaming in education and health, and enabling women’s ascent to positions of political and business leadership. Later in 2006, the Government of Lithuania approved the National Antidiscrimination Program for 2006-2008[5] which aims to address discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, race/ethnicity, and religious belief in all spheres of society. Additionally, it seeks to provide effective tolerance and antidiscrimination education, raise diversity awareness, and improve the legal basis for combating discrimination. The majority of the activities include tolerance and anti-discrimination awareness-raising campaigns as part of the EU’s Year of Equal Opportunities in 2007. The program also mandates research about multiple discrimination in order to identify the hidden problems of discrimination in the labor market in the public and private sectors

The Parliament of Lithuania debated the amendments to the new draft Law on Equal Opportunities in September 2007 and voted against amending this law.[6] The parliament failed to approve the amendments due to open hostility towards sexual minorities. Some parliamentarians bemoaned that the law ignored gender, but supported sexual orientation, a concept alien to Lithuanian society.[7] Thus, the parliamentarians criticised this draft law as “contradictory” to the Lithuanian traditional family norms and returned the draft for improvement. So far, the new amendments have not been approved, but instead were returned to the Ministry for further consideration.

In October 2007, the Ministry of Social Security and Labour drafted the fourth Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) report, which concluded that women’s anti-discrimination policies have been successfully implemented in Lithuania, that the progress on improving women’s situation has been the highest during previous years and that Lithuania has reached the goals of Lisbon strategy. The report suggests that women in Lithuania occupy high ranks in governmental and business sector, that elderly and young women’s employment increased and that problems of trafficking and domestic violence were successfully resolved.[8]

Following the requirement of the EU on full incorporation of EU directives on equal treatment between women and men in the services sector (200 Some parliamentarians bemoaned that the law ignored gender, but supported sexual orientation, a concept alien to Lithuanian society.[9] 4/113/EC) and employment, professional training, career possibilities and access to employment (2006/54/EC) the Government of Lithuania drafted the amendment on the law on Equal Opportunities for women and men which expanded the definitions on direct and indirect discrimination and improved the conditions for employees to defend their rights in the case of gender-based discrimination by placing the burden of proof on the accused. The amendments to the Law on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men were debated in  the Parliamentary session No. 7 on November 13, 2007. Some parliamentarians decried the “vague” definition of sexual harassment and questioned the necessity of including the provision redefining the burden of proof. Some parliamentarians from the Conservative Party questioned the justification of the amendment to blindly follow EU requirements. I. Degutiene argued about the need to place the country’s experience over EU demands. The law was returned for discussion in the appropriate Committees. It will return to the full Parliament for final debates and approval in the nearest future. According to the Explanatory Note of the law, Lithuania has to adopt the concerned EU directives before December 21, 2007.[10]  

Regardless of the important policy documents adopted by the government of Lithuania, the general climate in Lithuania after EU membership indicates tendencies toward intolerance and discrimination towards vulnerable groups of society, such as the gay population.

Trafficking in human persons and prostitution

In 2000, the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) reproached the Lithuanian government for not dealing seriously with prostitution and trafficking. At the same time, the criminalization of trafficking became an important issue for international organizations, particularly the International Organization on Migration (IOM). IOM launched an information campaign to raise awareness of this issue as a violation of human rights and to show how high unemployment and poverty, by encouraging illegal immigration, worsen trafficking.

In 2002 Lithuania ratified the UN Convention on International Organized Crime and in 2003 the UN Protocol on Prevention of Trafficking of Women and Children. Bowing to international pressure from the United States’ government and the governments of Nordic countries and recalling the commitments made during the EU accession process, the Control and Prevention of Trafficking and Prostitution Program  was put in place and subsequently extended from 2005 to 2008. Since 2003 the US Government has positively evaluated the developments of Lithuanian policies in dealing with trafficking.  The Ministry of Interior is tasked with coordinating this program. The new program covers analysis and collection of data and information and improvement of legal regulations, education for youth, risk groups, law enforcement, social workers, municipal personnel, teachers, medical personnel, media, support of victims, strengthening of institutional capacity, internal and external cooperation (Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, General Prosecutor’s Office, International Organization for Migration Vilnius Bureau, Ministry of Justice), Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Social Security and Labour, NGOs, IMO, Department of Migration). The majority of the activities were started in 2006, with the exception of victims’ support program that began in 2005 and that assigned was an annual budget of 400000 litas (115490 euros) for each year until 2008. The program provides the necessary sum for its implementation – 6, 200, 000 litas (1,795,644 euros).  The program is gender-neutral.[11] Although the program brought awareness to the issue on a national level and helped frame trafficking and prostitution as human rights violations, NGOs criticized the implementation of the program, because limited funding compromised its efficacy. However, the program was able to effect a change in attitudes of the police towards human trafficking, and in 2006 a special police unit was established to combat trafficking.[12]

The first political discussion about prostitution took place in 2004. Since 1996, NGOs have stressed the necessity of implementing policies to address prostitution. However, there is no consensus on whether the strategy should be to legalize or ban prostitution. Following the adoption of an amendment that established penalties for consumers of prostitution, the Women’s Information Center—supported by the Ministry of Social Security and Labor—organized in 2005 an awareness-raising campaign that aimed to change the discourse about the accountability of prostitution consumers. However, the issue of prostitution still is not widely discussed on a political level.

Domestic violence

Although gender-based violence has been recognized as a serious issue for many years, the Lithuanian government paid little attention to this issue until 2006. Women’s NGOs have been active in the field of domestic violence, providing shelters and psychological support for victims. Up until 2004 many women’s NGOs received support from international donors (Open Society Fund-Lithuania, UNDP, and the Embassies of the US, UK, Netherlands and Nordic countries). When Lithuania joined the EU in 2004, international donors withdrew their funding, and limited government funding made it difficult to continue providing services for victims. 

Beginning in 2000, female parliamentarians repeatedly introduced an amendment to the Criminal Code  to mandate the removal of the perpetrator from the home in domestic violence cases. The drafting of amendment was highly influenced by the Report of the Human Rights Commissar of the Council of Europe in 2003 where it was indicated that Lithuania was not fully committed to solving problem of domestic violence. The Ministry amended article 120 and 132¹ Criminal Code. The Parliament adopted the amendment in 2004, although some conservative forces opposed the amendment as the introduction of this amendment limits the property rights of a perpetrator. However, following the lobbying of women parliamentarians and NGOs, the amendment was passed. The amendment did not detail how to implement the removal of perpetrator. As there are no other legal provisions on how implement this amendment in practice, the amendment is an ineffective measure.[13] Parliament approved the amendment in 2004; however, human rights organizations criticized the measure because no mechanism to apply the provisions was introduced alongside. In addition to pressure from the EU, the untiring effort of several female parliamentarians, including G. Purvaneckiene, V. Boreikiene, O. Valiukeviciute, M. Pavilioniene, B. Veisaite, was critical in passage of the bill.

NGOs had been advocating for the adoption of the national action plan to reduce domestic violence and prepared recommendations in response to the government’s action plan to fight domestic violence. The implementation of the 2005-2009 National Program of Equal Opportunities for Women and Men compelled the government of Lithuania to enact a strategy to combat domestic violence by 2005 However, this was postponed until 2007. While drafting the program, the Ministry of Social Security and Labor and the Ministry of Justice often clashed because the latter opposed changing legal acts to allow the state to launch an investigation without requiring that the victim file a formal complaint in domestic violence cases. In the final discussions with NGOs, the Ministry of Justice remained firm in its opposition to the proposal, and despite approval of the strategy, no legal changes were made until mid-2007. The objectives of the program are to introduce complex measures to reduce the problem of violence against women in Lithuania. This strategy identifies three main priorities to contribute effectively to solving the problem of violence against women. First, it points out the needed improvements to existing law. Second, it introduces complex measures to support  victims of domestic violence. Finally, it creates programs to help perpetrators change their aggressive behaviour.[14]

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Sexual harassment and rape

Sexual harassment is defined in the Law on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, as well as the Criminal Code and Labor Code. This law defines the concept of sexual harassment in the workplace and stipulates liability for harassment. While adopting the Law on equal opportunities for women and men in 1998 there were discussions on this concept in the parliament. Some parliamentarians were against the concept something that was foreign to Lithuanian culture and as a negative feminist influence on Lithuanian culture. UNDP Lithuania’s Office provided technical support for the Office of Ombudsperson of Equal Opportunities in the further development in elaborating a mechanism for investigating sexual harassment.[15]

The Criminal Code includes an article on sexual harassment, which indicates that only vulgar and rough behavior is considered a crime and that the abuser will be punished only if it can be proven that he intended to rape the victim. Other forms of sexual harassment—such as verbal abuse, psychological pressure or attempts to have sex with the victim—are not covered by the law. Recently, however, the Ombudsperson for Equal Opportunities introduced an amendment to the Law on Equal Opportunities that would put the burden of proof on the accused in cases of sexual harassment.

Sexual Assault

In response to the conclusions of CEDAW committee in 2000 the Ministry of Justice drafted an article on the responsibility of sexual rape and provided definition of rape without any reservations as sexual intercourse against a person’s will. The law changed the private accusation order to the state accusation order. This was presented in the Third Report of the Lithuanian government, but it did not include the concept of domestic rape.[16] Rape in the family is not widely considered as a criminal act by society. In addition, existing rape statistics are very poor and do not include data about family rape. In the National Strategy on Reduction of Violence the government identified the invisibility of family rape in Lithuania as a result of deeply-rooted traditions regarding women’s domestic obligations which create the conditions for the population to deny the existence of family rape. No domestic rape cases have been filed or brought to trial.

Sources:

Kanopiene, Vida. 2004. Assessment of the 2004 National Action Plan for Employment from a Gender Perspective.

LRV nutarimas Nr. 1330, 2006-12-22 del Valstybines smurto pries moteris mazinimo strategijos ir jos igyveninimo priemoniu 2007-2009 m plano patvirtinimo. http://www.socmin.lt/index.php?-1889589091

Nevyriausybiniu organizaciju atstoviu nuomone apie faktine moteru teisiu padeti Lietuvoje bei ju pasiulymai moteru problemoms spresti http://www.moterukoalicija.webinfo.lt/dg_isvados.htm#0

Protocol of the meeting of the Commission of Family and Child Affairs and the Ombudsperson of Equal Opportunities. http://www3.lrs.lt/pls/inter/w5_show?p_r=5126&p_d=53899&p_k=1

Respublika, 2005 gruodzio 3d. p.5-6.

Vidmantas Dvilaitis, Sexual Harassment and Legal Liability of it” in Jurisprudencija, 2004 vol 60 (52)

[4] National Program on Implementation of Lisbon Strategy for 2005-2008