17 April 2015

On 16 April 2015, the Seimas Ombudsmen Augustinas Normantas and Raimondas Šukys held talks with Mr Rytis Paulauskas, Ambassador at Permanent Representation to the United Nations Office and other International Organization, over human rights issues and the perspectives of the National Human Rights Institution in Lithuania.

During the meeting with the Seimas Ombudsmen, the Ambassador to the UN in Geneva talked about human rights problems and was interested in the process of establishment of a National Human Rights Institution in Lithuania. Moreover, preparation for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) was discussed at the meeting.

In 2014 the Committee Against Torture positively evaluated the activity of the Seimas Ombudsmen and drew Lithuanian's attention towards its insufficient funding and-low number of employees.

Furthermore, Lithuania was encouraged to make decisions needed to establish a National Human Rights Institution in Lithuania.

In the Seimas Ombudsmen’s opinion the mandate of the National Human Rights Institution would offer more possibilities to coordinate work of different stakeholders and cooperate with various institutions and organizations in solving human rights problems.

“The amendments to the Law on the Seimas Ombudsmen will empower the Seimas Ombudsmen’s Office to carry out the monitoring and analysis of human rights situation in Lithuania as well as to prepare annual humans rights reports. This meeting is extremely important in pursuit of the most important goals of the Seimas Ombudsmen’s work” said A. Normantas.