16th December 2019
Every 5 years the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) issues recommendations for different member countries on the progress of women‘s rights. After the process of evaluation, the Committee just recently adopted its „Concluding observations on the sixth periodic report of Lithuania“.
Appreciated legislative reforms
The Committee welcomed the progress achieved since the consideration in 2014 of the State party’s fifth periodic report in undertaking legislative reforms. In particular the adoption of amendments to the equal opportunity laws, related to strengthening the implementation of persons with disabilities’ rights, ensuring the protection against sexual harassment not only of term-contract employees and civil servants, but also job seekers. The Committee appreciated the amendments to legislation on protection of domestic violence victims: providing for temporary protection orders in cases of domestic violence, abolishing the institute of private prosecution etc.
The UN experts emphasized the importance of the State’s efforts to improve gender equality situation by using action plans, programmes and projects. The project “Municipal Success Code – Gender Equality”, coordinated by the Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson, was named as good example to follow.
Recommended to expand the scope of the Office
In its recommendations, The Committee asked the State to consider adopting a comprehensive legislation on gender equality and non-discrimination. Such improvement should include: 1) the extension of the applicability of equal opportunities legislation to matters of family and private life; 2) the adoption of laws explicitly protecting women from intersecting forms of discrimination, while legally defining the concepts of gender and sex; 3) the explicit recognition in law discrimination of women on the basis of gender reassignment.
The Committee advised to expand the scope of the Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson regionally, in order to increase the accessibility of the institution. According to the UN experts, the State party should also consider to establish a specialized and gender-responsive unit to better protect women’s and girls’ rights and promote gender equality.
Concerning the temporary special measures (for instance, gender quotas), today it can be applied only when set forth by laws, adopted by the Parliament. Therefore, the Committee recommended to remove the legislative obstacles for the adoption and application of temporary special measures and adopt those measures.
Emphasis on gender stereotypes and economic inequality
The experts also addressed the question of gender stereotypes. They appreciated the review of school textbooks and other education materials by the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson and advised to develop and implement a specific action plan on follow-up to the review. In order to reduce the impact of gender stereotypes to the society, the Committee recommended to strengthen the implementation of the mandate of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson under the Law on Equal Treatment.
Even though the employment rate of women is the highest within the EU, gender pay gap is still apparent. The recommendations of the Committee included regularly reviews of wages in all occupational sectors, regular labour inspections, regular pay surveys, and awareness-raising campaigns in cooperation with employers’ associations and trade unions.
The experts emphasized that the right to education, employment, health services and protection from violence must be ensured for women with disabilities, migrant, rural, Roma and older women as well.
In order to speed up the progress, the Committee invited the Seimas, in line with its mandate, to take necessary steps regarding the implementation of the present concluding observations between now and the submission of the next periodic report under the Convention. The Committee requests the State party to submit its next report due in November 2023.
UN CEDAW Committee consists of 23 experts from all around the world. Prof. Dalia Leinarte from Lithuania is also a member of the Committee. The Committee has a function to monitor the implementation of The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women. This year the Office submitted its Additional Information Report on the State Party‘s Submission to the Committee for the first time.