A member of the executive board of Latvia’s ruling Unity Party resigned on December 2, 2014 after a string of tweets attacking LGBT* people, including one in which she appeared to praise the Nazi extermination of homosexuals, Latvian Public Broadcasting reported. “Thank God — at one time, the Germans shot them. It improves fertility,” Inga
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On December 2, 2014 the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that authorities, when verifying the sexual orientation of an asylum seeker, should always comply with the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. The case ended on the Court’s plate after Dutch authorities refused to grant asylum to three third-country nationals, who sought
On November 29, 2014 the Order and Justice Party has nominated a Member of the Lithuanian Parliament Petras Gražulis to run for Vilnius mayor’s office. “I can tell you that if I am elected, there will be no gay parades”, assured the candidate. MP Gražulis, who chairs the Party’s political group in the Lithuanian parliament,
The Finnish Parliament voted on Friday afternoon to allow gender-neutral marriage, 105-92. The vote had been expected to be closer. The unprecedented outcome marks the first time that a citizens’ initiative has received lawmakers’ blessing to be written into the law books. It also allows Finland to finally catch up with its Nordic peers, all
On November 25, 2014 the Lithuanian Parliament Seimas rejected yet another candidate for the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson. In a secret ballot, 48 MPs voted in favor of appointing lawyer Diana Gumbrevičiūtė-Kuzminskienė to the position, 42 were against and 18 abstained. MP Dalia Kuodytė criticized the vote as disgraceful, saying that the outcome reflected the prevailing homophobic
On November 25th, 2014 the European Parliament voted for a report defining its input into the global future development policy. The report contains strong wording on LGBTI rights and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). In 2000 the UN adopted the Millennium Declaration, specifying concrete targets to be reached by 2015: the Millennium Development
OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) released hate crime data for 2013. Thirty-six participating States submitted information, along with 109 NGOs covering incidents in 45 countries, including Lithuania. The national LGBT* rights organization LGL notified ODIHR about two physical assaults resulting in serious injuries, including the gang-rape of a gay man, a
The Union of Lithuanian Psychologists has issued a statement, criticizing a ban on airing a social video ad about LGBT* rights on television. Broadcasters have refused to air the video, saying it would violate a controversial minors protection law, but psychologists claim censorship of this kind is what does harm to children rather than messages
The Minister of Justice of Lithuania Juozas Bernatonis (Social Democratic Party) claimed that Lithuania will not follow the example of neighboring Estonia. According to Mr Bernatonis, civil partnership will not be legalized in Lithuania as long as he will be in charge of the Ministry of Justice. “I would say that this is an extremely
The United Nations programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) has announced a plan to “fast track” approach to tackling the AIDS epidemic with a view to ending it by 2030. The latest report from UNAIDS titled ‘Fast-Track: ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030′, outlines a plan to avert 28 million new HIV infections and 21 million
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach is recommending that sexual orientation become one of the protected classes listed in the non-discrimination policy of the Olympic Charter. The IOC underwent heavy criticism for many months leading up to the Sochi Olympics this year because they were held in Russia, a country that has an anti-gay propaganda
The conference “Fundamental rights, non-discrimination and the protection of vulnerable groups, including LGBTI’’ is being organised by Members of the Pre-Accession Countries’ Parliaments and the European Parliament in cooperation with the Italian Presidency of the Council of the EU and the European Commission and will be held in Albanian capital Tirana on 20-21 November. The