Concluding observations on the sixth periodic report of Lithuania *

* Adopted by the Committee at its seventy-fourth session (21 October–8 November 2019).

1.The Committee considered the sixth periodic report of Lithuania (CEDAW/C/LTU/6) at its 1734th and 1735th meetings (see CEDAW/C/SR.1734 and CEDAW/C/SR.1735), held on 31 October 2019. The list of issues and questions raised by the pre-sessional working group is contained in CEDAW/C/LTU/Q/6, and the responses of Lithuania are contained in CEDAW/C/LTU/Q/6/Add.1.

A.Introduction

2.The Committee appreciates the submission by the State party of its sixth periodic report. It also appreciates the State party’s follow-up report (CEDAW/C/LTU/CO/5/Add.1) and its written replies to the list of issues and questions raised by the pre-sessional working group on the sixth periodic report, as well as the oral presentation by the delegation and the further clarifications provided in response to the questions posed orally by the Committee during the dialogue.

3.The Committee commends the State party on its high-level delegation, which was headed by the Vice-Minister for Social Security and Labour of Lithuania, Eitvydas Bingelis, and included the Permanent Representative of Lithuania to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva, Andrius Krivas, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Social Security and Labour, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Justice, the Criminal Police Bureau, the State Labour Inspectorate and the National Agency of Education, a member of the Human Rights Committee of the Seimas (Parliament) and representatives of the Permanent Mission of Lithuania to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva.

B.Positive aspects

4.The Committee welcomes the progress achieved since the consideration in 2014 of the State party’s fifth periodic report (CEDAW/C/LTU/5) in undertaking legislative reforms, in particular the adoption of the following:

(a)Amendments to the Law on Equal Treatment and the Law on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men:

(i)Extending the responsibility of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson to monitor the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, including in relation to women and girls with disabilities, in 2019;

(ii)Ensuring the protection against sexual harassment not only of term-contract employees and civil servants, but also of job seekers, in 2017;

(iii)Clarifying that discrimination includes discrimination against women on grounds of pregnancy and maternity and that not only sexual, but also other forms of harassment, are prohibited in the workplace, in 2016;

(iv)Requiring State institutions, including at the municipal level, to provide for measures that ensure equal opportunities for women and men in strategic planning documents and/or strategic action plans and prevent and combat sexual harassment at schools, in tertiary education institutions and in the workplace, in 2014;

(b)Amendments to the Criminal Code:

(i)Establishing criminal liability for acts of discrimination or incitement to hatred on the basis of, inter alia, sex, gender and sexual orientation, in 2017;

(ii)Providing for temporary protection orders in cases of domestic violence, including obligating the perpetrator to reside separately from, and not to approach, the victim, in 2015;

(c)Amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure abolishing private prosecution for certain crimes, such that women who have been victims of gender-based violence, including domestic violence, would no longer be obligated to testify in court in the related criminal trial, in 2017;

(d)Amendments to the Law on Protection against Domestic Violence aimed at improving inter-agency coordination, multidisciplinary training and the protection of victims prior to pretrial investigation, in 2016;

(e)Changes to the provisions of the Law on the Approval, Entry into Force and Implementation of the Code of Administrative Offences, aimed at harmonizing it with the amendments to the Law on Equal Treatment and the Law on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, in 2016.

5.The Committee welcomes the State party’s efforts to improve its institutional and policy framework aimed at accelerating the elimination of discrimination against women and promoting gender equality, such as the adoption of the following:

(a)Action plan for the period 2018–2021 for the implementation of the national programme on equal opportunities for women and men, 2015–2021, providing, inter alia, for the partial financing of projects of eligible civil society organizations working to promote the equality of women and men and measures designed to eliminate stereotypes in the education system, in 2018;

(b)Amendments to the action plan for the national programme for the prevention of domestic violence and provision of assistance to victims, 2014–2020, aimed at not defeating the object and purpose of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention), which the State party has signed but not yet ratified, in 2018;

(c)Supplements to the plan for the development of the indicator database for the publication of more detailed gender statistics indicators by Statistics Lithuania, in 2017;

(d)Programme for the development of public security, 2015–2025, its 2016 inter-institutional action plan, aimed at effectively combating trafficking in persons, including women and girls, and the special education module programme on the prevention and investigation of trafficking in persons, in 2017;

(e)Project entitled “Municipal success code – gender equality”, aimed at systematically reducing gender inequality in relation to all subject matters within the mandate of municipalities, in 2016;

(f)Action plan on combating trafficking in persons, 2017–2019, in 2016.

C.Sustainable Development Goals

6. The Committee welcomes the international support for the Sustainable Development Goals and calls for the realization of de jure (legal) and de facto (substantive) gender equality, in accordance with the provisions of the Convention, throughout the process of implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Committee recalls the importance of Goal 5 and of the mainstreaming of the principles of equality and non-discrimination throughout all 17 Goals. It urges the State party to recognize women as the driving force of the sustainable development of the State party and to adopt relevant policies and strategies to that effect.

D.Parliament

7. The Committee stresses the crucial role of the legislative power in ensuring the full implementation of the Convention (see A/65/38 , part two, annex VI). It invites the Seimas, in line with its mandate, to take the necessary steps regarding the implementation of the present concluding observations between now and the submission of the next periodic report under the Convention.

E.Principal areas of concern and recommendations

Visibility of the Convention, the Optional Protocol thereto and the Committee’s general recommendations

8.The Committee welcomes the intention of the State party to prepare a separate action plan for the implementation of the present concluding observations. It nevertheless remains concerned by:

(a)The lack of data on cases in which the Convention has been invoked in court proceedings;

(b)The lack of awareness among the general public in the State party about the Convention in general and the Committee’s general recommendations and jurisprudence under the Optional Protocol;

(c)The non-systematic character of awareness-raising and training activities on the implementation of the Convention.

9. Reiterating its previous recommendations ( CEDAW/C/LTU/CO/5 , para. 9), the Committee calls upon the State party to:

(a) Provide comprehensive data in its next periodic report about the number of cases annually in which the Convention has been invoked before domestic courts since the publication of the present concluding observations;

(b) Disseminate and give more publicity to the Convention, the Optional Protocol thereto and the Committee’s concluding observations and general recommendations, as well as its views and recommendations on individual communications and inquiries under the Optional Protocol, and raise awareness among women and men of their rights under the Convention and of the legal remedies available to them to claim those rights;

(c) Strengthen capacity-building programmes for judges, prosecutors, police officers and other law enforcement officials, as well as lawyers, in this regard.

Definition of equality and non-discrimination

10.The Committee recognizes the improvements to the State party’s legislative framework aimed at ensuring equality between women and men and prohibiting gender-based discrimination, including direct and indirect discrimination on various grounds. However, it notes with concern:

(a)That the Law on Equal Treatment and the Law on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men are not applicable to matters of family and private life, in which many women require legal protection;

(b)That there is no legislation specifically prohibiting intersecting forms of discrimination against women and no definition of the legal concepts of gender and sex;

(c)The absence of legislation prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of gender reassignment, whereas such discrimination has been recognised as sex-based discrimination in a number of court decisions.

11. The Committee recommends that the State party consider adopting comprehensive legislation on gender equality and non-discrimination. It further recommends that the State party:

(a) Extend the applicability of its anti-discrimination and equal opportunities legislation to matters of family and private life;

(b) Adopt legislation explicitly protecting women from intersecting forms of discrimination and legally define the concepts of gender and sex;

(c) Explicitly recognize in law the discrimination against women on the basis of gender reassignment as gender-based discrimination.

Access to justice and legal complaint mechanisms

12.The Committee welcomes the legal aid reform of 2019 that provides for primary legal assistance (except in proceedings before courts) for all persons in vulnerable situations, including women, and secondary legal assistance in court proceedings to all victims, inter alia, of gender-based violence, including sexual and domestic violence, and hate crimes, irrespective of their financial status. However, the Committee notes that, in 2018, the Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson did not receive any complaints from women or girls with disabilities and that there was a low number of complaints of discrimination on the basis of sex or gender overall, due in part to the absence of regional and local branches of the Office.

13. In the light of its general recommendation No. 33 (2015) on women’s access to justice, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(a) Ensure full access to justice for disadvantaged or marginalized groups, such as women belonging to minority groups, migrant, rural and older women, women with disabilities, lesbian, bisexual and transgender women and intersex persons;

(b) Raise awareness among women of the remedies available to them to claim violations of their rights under the Convention;

(c) Expand the scope of the Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson so as to facilitate access to justice for all women at the regional and local levels.

National machinery for the advancement of women

14.The Committee welcomes the steady increase of the funding of non‑governmental organizations promoting gender equality and women’s rights. It also welcomes the draft amendments to the Order regarding the Establishment of the Commission on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men which, inter alia, envisage the delegation of State representatives at a level no lower than that of deputy minister. The Committee is nevertheless concerned:

(a)That the Commission, as a monitoring and supervisory body, is also directly involved in developing and implementing the action plan for the period 2018–2021 for the implementation of the national programme on equal opportunities for women and men, 2015–2021;

(b)That the mandate of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson has been converted into a gender-neutral mandate;

(c)By the absence of comprehensive gender-based budgeting strategies and budgetary allocations.

15. The Committee recommends that the State party:

(a) Swiftly adopt the draft amendments to the Order regarding the Establishment of the Commission on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men and clarify its mandate to avoid any undue confusion regarding its monitoring and policymaking functions;

(b) Take measures to reverse the gender neutrality entrenched in the mandate of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson and establish a specialized and gender-responsive unit to better protect the rights