9th January 2018
On the International Day for Human Rights, the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson drew attention to the major developments in the field of equal opportunities in 2017. “Together with the Office, we decided to distinguish the five most prominent developments that would make it easier for the public to assess how Lithuania succeeded this year,” says Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson Agneta Skardžiuvienė.
The Ombudsperson states that recalling the most important developments of the year, both negative and positive changes are noticeable: “It would be desirable that the positive changes would happen faster, gain momentum. There are really good initiatives in the area of equal opportunities, but they lack political support and, sometimes, the effective functioning of the responsible institutions.”
Agneta Skardžiuvienė said that growing public consciousness contributes to the awareness of the principle of equal opportunities. “We notice that some positive changes are dictated by society. That means society is becoming more aware of equal opportunities”, says the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson.
Most prominent developments of the year:
Breakthrough in the fight against sexual harassment
The issue of sexual harassment has never been so sound and high-profile. The attention to the issue of sexual harassment increased at the beginning of the year as a reaction to behaviour of the member of the Seimas Kęstutis Pūkas. His case led to many discussions and encouraged women who had experienced similar situations to start talking about the issue. The Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson in cooperation with the member of the Seimas Aušrinė Armonaitė initiated legislative amendments to include prohibition of sexual harassment during application process for the job, for example job interview, thus closing a legal loophole.
Equal Opportunity Ombudsperson’s conclusion in the case of Linas Zaikauskas, the director of Juozas Miltinis Drama Theatre, who sexually harassed the theatre employee also drew attention to the issue. Upon revealing this fact, the Minister of Culture fired the director. Disclosing cases of sexual harassment and the widespread #metoo social campaign has empowered many women to open up and talk about their experiences openly.
A new requirement for employers to have equal opportunities policies
A big step forward in improving the situation of equal opportunities in the labour market is related to the new duty for the employers provided by the new Labour Code. Since July, employers have been placed under an obligation to adopt equal opportunities policies at the workplace and ensure their supervision. This provision only applies to those enterprises with an average number of employees of more than fifty.
The new obligation enshrines the principle that employers must not only ensure equal opportunities but also take active measures to promote equal opportunities through various means. In response to requests from enterprises and institutions how this principle should be implemented, the Office has developed recommendations for Equal Treatment Policies.
Focus on the rights of transgender persons
At the beginning of the year, the Government assigned the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Health to draft legislation for ensuring the provision of health services to transgender people and the right to change personal documents through an administrative procedure without requiring medical gender reassignment. This is the beginning of important and necessary changes to protect the rights of transgender persons, but implementation of these changes is still delayed. Although the draft legislation assigned for the Ministry of Health is already in place, it is still not signed by the minister. The draft law on the recognition of sexual identity, prepared by the Ministry of Justice, has not yet reached the Government.
In April, national courts issued a decision allowing to change personal documents for transgender persons through an administrative procedure without requiring medical gender reassignment so setting the important precedent for other cases. This is a positive development, but transgender persons, like all other Lithuanian citizens, should be guaranteed the right to change personal documents through a regular administrative procedure without decision of the court.
Citizenship is included in the list of grounds for which discrimination is prohibited
In July, the Seimas passed the Amendment to the Law on Equal Opportunities, prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of citizenship. This significant change enhances the possibilities for a larger proportion of society to defend their rights.
However, the changes are not unequivocally positive. Citizenship is defined by law as that of citizens of the Member States of the European Union and of the countries of the European Economic Area and their family members. However, the members of the families created through a registered partnership agreement are not considered as families according to the law. This prevents the proper transposition into Lithuanian legal system of the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on measures to facilitate access by workers to the free movement of labour.
The low Lithuania’s score on the international equality indices
Following the publication of the updated Gender Equality Index this year, it has become clear that despite Lithuania’s tangible progress in the field of gender equality in recent years, gender equality, however, has only improved by one percentage point during the last ten years. The main problems remain gender inequality in the area of political, economic, social power and the gap between the time spent by men and women on children care and housekeeping.
Lithuania ranked 39th to 40th in the Rainbow Index published by the International LGBTI Rights Association ILGA-Europe. Index reflects the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and intersex people. Compared to previous results of the country (2016 – 39th, 2015 – 35th place), progress is not noticeable. The index indicates that Lithuania lacks the improvements in ensuring the rights of transgender persons, the rights of the same-sex persons to the family and effective response to hate crime and hate speech.