Vladimir Simonko, Executive Director of the National LGBTI rights organisation LGL, which celebrated its thirtieth anniversary recently, says that since the restoration of Lithuania’s independence, it has been difficult for changes in the LGBTIQ sphere to find their way onto the political agenda: “The LGBTIQ community had high hopes for Lithuania when it regained its

“Direction: Employment” is an innovative training program for vulnerable young people, which enhances their employability in competitive, high-technology industries and the IT sector. The project aims to unleash the potential of NEET young people from vulnerable groups, and increase their employability by providing a market-specific IT training program in Bulgaria, Lithuania, Italy, Slovenia and Portugal.

Lithuanian Draft Law of Equal Treatment: Another Missed Opportunity?

This September Lithuanian Parliament began to review a new legislative proposal on Lithuanian Law of Equal Treatment amendments, initiated by the Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson. While the draft law introduces quite a few well-needed changes, such as including the definition of associative discrimination, it does, however, ignore the burning questions of transgender individuals,

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,

Human rights youth exchange: discovering the contrasting reality of Georgia

From the 4th to the 12th of July, 2015 the representatives of the national LGBT* rights organization LGL participated to the international project “Open Your Mind 2” under the ERASMUS+ programme, youth exchange for young people on human rights and equal opportunities, organized in Rustavi, Georgia. The project “Open Your Mind 2”, gave the opportunity

On the 16th of May, 2015, the national LGBT* rights organization LGL received a notice from the Equal Opportunities Ombudsman’s Office of the Republic of Lithuania stating that the company ‘Julturas’ violated Article 8, Part 1 of the Law on Equal Opportunities of the Republic of Lithuania by refusing to rent a bus to LGL

Gender-based harassment is now legal in Lithuania?

On 15 July 2014 the Lithuanian Parliament has passed the controversial amendment to the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Equal Opportunities for Men and Women, which will legalize gender-based harassment. 83 MPs voted in favor of passing the law, while 13 MPs abstained, thus outnumbering 2 MPs who voted against the proposal. MP

The National Equality and Diversity Forum (NEDF) has published “Equality and Diversity in the NGO Sector: Good Practices of Integration of Equal Opportunities in Lithuania“ in English language. The collection compiles good practices of equality and diversity and the projects successfully implemented by the members of NEDF, including Vilnius Community of Bočiai ( the Lithuanian Union of