Amnesty International has published its annual human rights report, in which it criticizes Lithuania for discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

As a positive development the report mentions an amendment to the Law on Provision of Information to the Public that came into force in June 2011, reversing a previous amendment and banning discrimination in advertising and public broadcast on the basis of sexual orientation.

The report, however, points out other discriminatory legislation or proposals, such as amendments to the Code on Administrative Offences included in the parliamentary agenda published in September 2011. These amendments covered fines for “denigrating constitutional moral values and the principles of family” as well as “organizing events contradicting social morality”. The same agenda proposed amendments to the Civil Code to ban gender reassignment surgery.

Amnesty International’s report also criticizes the Law on the Protection of Minors against the Detrimental Effect of Public Information, which has remained in force. According to this law, any information which “denigrates family values”, or encourages marriage between anyone other than between a man and a woman, is banned from places accessible to minors.