On June 28th, 2016 the Lithuanian Parliament voted in favor of the constitutional amendment, which seeks to eliminate same-sex couples from the ambit of the constitutional concept of family life. 74 MPs voted in favor of the constitutional amendment, 19 MPs voted against and 20 MPs abstained. This vote implicates that no sooner than in

On March 3d, 2016 Vilnius County Court rejected the appeal, filed by the Lithuanian author Neringa Dangvydė, regarding the decision of the District Court of Vilnius City that the publisher of the fairytale book “Gintarinė širdis” (“Amber heart”), the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences, had the right to suspend the distribution of the publication, and

Lithuanian Bishops’ Conference: Family Should Be Associated with Marriage

On November 25th, 2015 the Committee on Legal Affairs of the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania held a hearing on a proposal to amend the Article 38 of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania, which states that “family emanates from a marriage between a man and a woman”. The participants of the hearing,

By treating different-sex and same-sex unmarried couples differently, Lithuania would violate the European Convention of Human Rights, Professor of Law Vytautas Mizaras from Vilnius University argued on the June 3rd, 2015. The Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Lithuania is intending to propose a partnership law that would apply only to different-sex couples. According

The Lithuanian Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs has decided that the Partnership Act does not violate the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania. However, while members of Parliament debate the legality of this act, those who are not yet able to legally formalize their relationships continue to experience financial losses and feel degraded by society.

On the 6th of May, 2015 the Lithuanian Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs decided that civil partnerships for same-sex couples are consistent with the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania, says Deputy Chair Stasys Šedbaras. “The majority voted that the project does not violate the Constitution,” Mr. Šedbaras told to Lithuanian news agency BNS. On

Homophobic draft laws in the Lithuanian Parliament’s spring agenda

On the 19th of March, 2015, the spring work agenda of the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania was approved and contains a long list of initiatives seeking to limit LGBT* rights. First, there is the infamous Article 38 of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania, which states that “family is the foundation of