15th January 2016
On 14th January Agneta Lobačevskytė, Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson, met with Christine Defraigne, Chair of the Senate of the Kingdom of Belgium. During her official visit to Lithuania the Chair of the Senate expressed her wish to meet the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson to discuss the situation of women in Lithuania.
Agneta Lobačevskytė presented the main activities and priorities of the Office, emphasised the lack of public awareness of equality issues and the need for more active involvement of municipalities in implementation of equal opportunities.
Ms. Defraigne was particularly interested in problems of violence against women, which is an important issue of concern. Although violence against women does not fall within the competence of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson, Ms Agneta Lobačevskytė mentioned the social campaign “Men for Women” that has been run by the Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson in the framework of the EU funded project. The campaign aimed to encourage men not to silence and actively respond to any sign of violence against women. Advertising measures caused a lot of discussions among the public and wide media coverage.
This was the first visit of a Belgian high-ranking official in the Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson.