Executive summary

• Author: Sabatauskait?, Birut?
• Pages: 5-13

5

EXECUTIVESUMMARY

1. Introduction

Lithuania regained its independence from the SovietUnion in 1990. The current

Constitution1was approved by referendum in 1992.On 1May2004 Lithuania joined the

European Union, requiringsignificant changesto be madeto the legal system in little

over a decade to meet EU and international standards without broader discussion.

According to the generalcensus carried out in2011, Lithuanians account for 84.2 % of

the population, with the biggestminority groups being Poles andRussians (Poles make up

6.6 % of the population and Russians account for 5.8 %, although thereare certain

regions where ethnic minorities form the majority). The same maybe applied to religion

and beliefs: 77.2 % of the population considerthemselves to be Roman Catholics; 10.1

% did not indicate their religion; 4.1 % are Orthodox; and 8.6 % belong to other religious

communities.Hence, Lithuania could be considered a rather homogenous country. That is

supported by the results of the 2019 Eurobarometer survey on discrimination:only18 %

of Lithuanian residents think that discrimination on the basis of ethnicoriginis

widespread in the country (theEU average is 59%), and just 15 % think that religious

discrimination is widespread (the averagein the EU is 47%).2However, the same

Eurobarometer surveyshows that Lithuanian residents think that discrimination is most

widespread onthebasis of being Roma (48%), sexual orientation (50%), being

perceivedas too oldor too young (45%), disability (37%)and being transgender

(36 %). Attitudes towards LGBpersons were amongthe least accepting in the EU

according to the 2019 Eurobarometer survey.3

The lack of comprehensive equality data remains a barrier to assessing the real situation

faced by certain vulnerable groups. A comprehensiveequality data collection system has

not yet been established. The datathat are currentlyavailable mostly derive from various

studies, public opinion surveys and data collection by administrative bodies.

Negative attitudesare persistent,particularly as regards certaingroups. The potential

vulnerability of particular communities can be assessed byanalysing the data from

annual surveyson public attitudes towards various minority groups, which reveal that the

‘hierarchy of intolerance’ remains the same – Romapersons, ex-convicts, ‘mentally

disabled people’, refugees, migrantsand the LGBT community aretheleast tolerated

groupsin Lithuania, and thus the most vulnerable to discrimination.

The initiatives taken by the Parliament to protectso-called‘traditional values’ do not

improve the situation.4Prejudice againstgaypeople is deeply rooted in society. The issue

of sexual orientation is addressed by theLaw on Equal Treatment(LET), which is

designed to transpose EU anti-discriminationlegislation. Unfortunately, the education

system is only just beginning topartly addressthe issue. However, there has been

significant progress in recent years, with more and more people openly supporting the

1Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania (Lietuvos Respublikos Konstitucija), 1992, No. 33-1014, available in

English at: http://www3.lrs.lt/home/Konstitucija/Constitution.htm.

2Special Eurobarometer 493, ‘DiscriminationintheEuropean Union’, May 2019, availablein Englishat:

https://ec.europa.eu/commfrontoffice/publicopinion/index.cfm/survey/getsurveydetail/instruments/special/s

urveyky/2251.

3‘Eurobarometer on Discrimination 2019: the social acceptance of LGBTI peoplein the EU’, September 2019,

available in English: https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/ebs_493_data_fact_lgbti_eu_en-1.pdf.

4Draft LawAmending Article 38 of the Constitution (Konstitucijos 38 straipsnio pakeitimo statymo

projektas), 17June2016, available in Lithuanian at: https://e-

seimas.lrs.lt/portal/legalAct/lt/TAP/0be20cb0348411e6a222b0cd86c2adfc?jfwid=1dlo7extc9.

There havebeen other examplesof such initiatives over theyears.The Parliament adopted the Law on

StrengtheningtheFamily in 2017, whichstresses thatthe complementarityof man and a woman is the

basis ofthefamily.

Law on Strengthening the Family (Šeimos stiprinimo statymas), 19 October2017, available in Lithuanian

at: https://e-seimas.lrs.lt/portal/legalAct/lt/TAD/71039aa2b98511e7967a9645b537eb05.