LGL Invites to International Baltic Pride 2016 Human Rights Conference

The National LGBT* Rights Organization LGL cordially invites you to the one-day international human rights conference “Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Relationships: Emerging International Consensus and Local Opportunities”, which will be organized within the framework of the Baltic Pride 2016 events on 17 June 2016. It is organized with the view of discussing the international and European movement towards legal recognition of same-sex relationships and exploring legal, social and cultural implications of this phenomenon. The conference will address the following issues:

(1) developments in marriage equality around the globe;

(2) emerging European consensus on legal recognition of same-sex relationships;

(3) possibilities for legal recognition of same-sex relationships in Lithuania;

(4) developments in the broader Baltic States region.

tolerance_center_icon-01The conference aims at raising legal awareness among the general public and policy makers regarding the non-existent possibility for legal recognition of same-sex relationships in Lithuania. At the moment only six (6) member states of the European Union do not provide for any possibility for legal recognition of same-sex relationships. With the view of ensuring the effective implementation of the right to respect for private and family life within the European legal space, it is necessary to further stimulate public discourse on legal protection of rainbow families not only in Lithuania, but also in the broader region.  The list of speakers is as follows (in alphabetical order):

Aušrinė Armonaitė (Member of the Vilnius City Council, Liberal Movement, Lithuania)

Erwann Binet (Member of the French National Assembly, France)

Natalija Bitiukova (Deputy Director of the Human Rights Monitoring Institute, Lithuania)

Monica Cirinna (Member of the Italian Senate, Italy)

Frances Fitzgerald (Minister of Justice and Equality, Ireland) (TBC)

Ashley Fowler (Program Coordinator for HRC Global at Human Rights Campaign, USA)

Danutė Jočienė (Judge of the Constitutional Court, Lithuania)

Helen Kennedy (Executive Director of the EGALE Canada Human Rights Trust, Canada)

Alice Bah Kuhnke (Minister of Culture and Democracy, Sweden)

Dalia Kuodytė (Member of the Lithuanian Parliament, Lithuania)

Ulrike Lunacek (Vice-President of the European Parliament and Co-Chair of the EP’s LGBTI Intergroup, Austria)

Stuart Milk (President of the Harvey Milk Foundation, USA)

Vytautas Mizaras (Professor of Law at Vilnius University, Lithuania)

Nils Muižnieks (Commissioner for Human Rights, Council of Europe)

Tanuja Munnoo (Provincial Manager of the South African Human Rights Commission, South Africa)

Kajsa Ollongren (Deputy Mayor of City of Amsterdam, the Netherlands)

Marija Aušrinė Pavilionienė (Member of the Lithuanian Parliament, Lithuania)

Tomas Vytautas Raskevičius (Policy Coordinator (Human Rights) of the National LGBT* Rights Organization LGL, Lithuania)

Birutė Sabatauskaitė (Director of the Lithuanian Center for Human Rights, Lithuania)

Jutta Schmitz (Ambassador of Germany to Lithuania, Germany)

Vladimir Simonko (Executive Director of the National LGBT* Rights Organization LGL, Lithuania)

Alexander Schuster (Lecturer in Law at the University of Trento, Italy) (TBC)

Imre Sooäär (Member of the Estonian Parliament, Estonia)

Ilze Vinkele (Member of the Latvian Parliament, Latvia)

Robert Wintemute (Professor of Human Rights Law at the King’s College London, United Kingdom)

The official languages of the conference are English and Lithuanian (i.e. synchronized translation).

BP16 Conference Programme

The event on FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1201879886498382.

The National LGBT* Rights Organization LGL is the sole civil society organization in Lithuania which works exclusively in the field of LGBT* human rights. The conference “Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Relationships: Emerging International Consensus and Local Opportunities” is one of the key events of the Baltic Pride 2016 festival in Vilnius (Lithuania). Baltic Pride is a joint effort by the LGBT* organizations in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with the view of advancing LGBT* equality in the Baltic States region.

The main supporters of the event are the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany Vilnius, the EVZ Foundation, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Vilnius, Nordic Council of Ministers‘ Office in Lithuania and the General Representation of the Government of Flanders at the Belgian Embassy.