18th March 2016
On March 17th advisers to the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Iryna Ulasiuk and Jennifer Croft met with Agneta Lobačevskytė to discuss ombudsperson’s perspective on issues of national minorities in Lithuania. Agneta Lobačevskytė presented statistics of discrimination complaints in 2015, introduced the main issues of complaints filed by people who were discriminated against on the ground of ethnicity, nationality, language and origin. Low visibility of the institution and lack of people’s awareness of their rights were mentioned by Ms Lobačevskytė as the main reasons of under-reporting of discrimination in general and ethnic discrimination in particular. Appointed by the Seimas in June 2015, the equal opportunities ombudsperson Agneta Lobačevskytė has identified awareness raising and increasing institution’s visibility as strategic priorities of the Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson.