Saras World

Nobody ever should forget, that until now, far too many people don’t make a diffrerence between sexual orientation and gender identity.

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Vilnius, LITHUANIA –  On September 23, the Lithuanian  parliament  (Seimas) adopted its autumn agenda, preparing to debate and come to a final decision regarding the  legislative amendments which would criminalize the “promotion of  homosexual relations in public places.”  These amendments have the  potential to go into effect as early as December 2010.

 

“Any move by the  Lithuanian parliament to criminalize the promotion of homosexuality  would violate the country’s international obligations to uphold  freedom of expression and fight discrimination“, Amnesty International warned last year as Lithuanian parliament accepted the submission of these  legislative amendments for consideration. This first stage of  the Lithuanian legal procedure – the submission of the project – has now  been completed. There are two further stages for the Lithuanian parliament  to take following today’s legal actions that could put these proposed  amendments into effect.  The  first is for the Committees and Commissions to consider and deliberate  over these proposed amendments. If this stage is successful, the final step will be a final vote of  the members of parliament regarding the adoption of these amendments. The legislative  amendments which would criminalise the “promotion of homosexual relations  in public places” are included within a larger agenda that includes other legislative amendments, which makes this a very dangerous legal  situation.  With other  important issues at the forefront of the autumn agenda, there is a serious  risk that the Lithuanian parliament members will not dedicate enough time  to the consideration of these proposed amendments in particular.  Grave consequences may result from the fact that these amendments appear within the same legal block as the other amendments. Parliamentarians will have to weigh in carefully on these specific discriminatory amendments, and consider them separately and fairly, in  order to keep them from passing with other amendments included in this  legal block.

 

The two legislative  amendments that discriminate against homosexuals that are up for  consideration include:

• A new article  310(1) in the Penal Code entitled “Promotion of homosexual relations  in public places”, which states that “a person promoting homosexual  relations in public places is committing a criminal offense which is  punishable with community work or a fine or imprisonment.” The offence can  also be committed by legal persons.
• A  new article  214(30) in the Administrative Code entitled “Promotion of homosexual  relations or financing of promotion in public places,” which states that  “the promotion of homosexual relations or financing of the promotion in  public places is to be punished by a fine from one thousand to five  thousand litas.”

If these amendments  are ultimately adopted, the Lithuanian government will have the authority  to prosecute on an extremely wide variety of actions and activities.

 

“We  are deeply concerned that the proposed amendments to the Criminal and the Administrative Codes will violate the human rights of freedom of  expression and assembly, and will heighten the levels of inequality and  discrimination of LGBT people in Lithuania.” – said Vladimir Simonko,  Chairman of the Lithuanian Gay League ( LGL ). “The  consideration of these proposed ammendments exemplifies the continuous  process of the institutionalization of homophobia in Lithuania. It first  began with the  discriminatory Law on the Protection of Minors against the Detrimental  Effect of Public Information, legally adopted in March this year.  We had to struggle for our right to  hold a peaceful Pride event this past May following this legal action, as  Prosecutor General and 53 parliamentarians turned to the court to ban the  event. Unfortunately, these new amendments go even further, as they would  criminalize almost any public expression or dissemination of information  about homosexuality. Instead of moving forward to protect and ensure human  rights and equality for all, the Lithuanian government is ready and  willing to violate its international oblig ations and to go back to the  year 1993, when homosexual activities were considered criminal conduct“ –  Vladimir Simonko added.

“It is hard to  believe that a member of the European Union should even be considering the  adoption of such legislation”, said Nicola Duckworth, Europe and Central  Asia Programme Director, Amnesty International, last  year. 

 

Information origin:

Lithuanian Gay  League A. Jaksto str.  22-15 LT-01105  Vilnius, Lithuania

Tel. +370 (5)  2610314 Fax. +370 (5) 2130762 E-mail: office@gay.lt LGL Official website

 

Information provided by the association LGL. Site created  by the EQUAL programme in 2005 -2008. Site supported by the Ministry  of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and Open Society Institute. More information at www.atviri.lt

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