VILNIUS – Lithuanian lawmakers revised a controversial law on Tuesday that banned the promotion of homosexuality, but gay rights campaigners warned the move did nothing to assuage their concerns. In a 58-4 vote, with 25 abstentions, parliament approved amendments to legislation that sparked criticism from rights groups in Lithuania and abroad when it was passed

VILNIUS, Dec 22, – The Lithuanian Seimas on Tuesday adopted amendments to the Law on the Protection of Minors against the Detrimental Effects of Public Information to replace provisions in the previous edition which were deemed homophobic. The new bill bans information that could be seen as promoting sexual relations from reaching the country’s youth. The

On Wednesday, Committee on Education, Science and Culture (CESC) did not approve amendment which proposed public information which encourages homosexual, bisexual relations or polygamy to treat as having detrimental effect on minors. This amendment proposed by member of the Conservative Party Gintaras Songaila was approved by the Seimas in the discussion of the draft of

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said she’ll veto the Law on the Protection of Minors against the Detrimental Effects of Public Information if the Seimas opts to yet again include in it homophobic provisions slammed by human rights watchdogs. “This law violates the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights. I will veto such a law,” the

What is, and what should be, the role of legislation in efforts to combat discrimination? Will the current draft anti-discrimination directive help to reduce discrimination in the EU Member States, and how can we best combat multiple discrimination? These were just some of the questions discussed at the Equality Summit held on 16-17 November. One

November 12, 2009 Austin Ruse The fight over homosexual propaganda in schools taking place between the Lithuanian and European Parliaments escalated this week with the Lithuanian Parliament (Siemas) calling on its government to file suit against the Europeans in the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU). The argument began with passage of a

A successful and the largest ever annual conference of ILGA-Europe concluded in Malta on 1 November. Over 300 people from 48 countries took part in the conference. This is the highest number of participants at ILGA-Europe’s annual conference ever. The theme of this year’s conference was “Overcoming Cultural and Religious Barriers to LGBT Equality”. This

Commissioner Hammarberg visited Lithuania from 19 to 20 October for high level discussions with the Lithuanian authorities where a number of human rights issues were raised, including minority rights, the need to investigate the alleged existence in Lithuania of a secret detention centre for terrorist suspects, and the deficiencies of the Law on the Protection