After the success of the first training session on the 22nd of November 2017, a second training session was held at the Faculty of Economics and Informatics of the University of Bialystok in Vilnius on the 25th of January 2018. This time, the training was conducted by the European Foundation of Human Rights (EFHR) lawyer…
On Thursday the 25th of January 2018, EVS Volunteer Carmen Cara Lorente, along with Volunteer Cormac Flahive and workers from the European Foundation of Human Rights (EFHR), visited the historic catacombs of Vilnius Cathedral. During this trip, participants were able to experience the catacombs of the Cathedral with the help of a guided tour. They…
Gabrielius Graželis is a new intern at the European Foundation of Human Rights, he is from Vilnius, Lithuania. His internship lasts two months, from the end of January until the end of March. He is studying English Philology and the Second Foreign Language (French) at the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences. His interests are languages,…
Marija Balsevičiūtė is a third year bachelor degree student of Social Policy at Vilnius University. She is mostly interested in Human Rights and therefore, she has opted for volunteering during eight weeks at the European Foundation of Human Rights (EFHR). Here she hopes to gain more knowledge in the field of Human Rights and their…
Rasa Papartytė has previously studied a Bachelor’s in International Relations and Development at Sussex University in the UK. As part of her Erasmus programme, Rasa has spent a year studying at the Complutense University in Spain. During her studies Rasa showed interest in human rights and its violations on a global scale, as well as…
On 19th March, the European Foundation of Human Rights (EFHR) commemorated the ‘European Week Against Racism’ at the Youth Centre of Vilnius Municipality. For the event the EFHR firstly arranged a discussion on the topic “Tendencies of Racism in Lithuania”, which was led by the special guests: Lešek Jankovskij, lawyer from the EFHR, Jelena Jonis,…
On 20th March, the European Foundation of Human Rights (EFHR) team went to the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, as part of their monthly activities. This time, the EVS Carmen Cara Lorente, the trainee Gabrielius Emilis Graželis and the workers of the EFHR spent nearly 2 hours at this interesting spot of Vilnius.…
On 6th April, the European Foundation of Human Rights (EFHR) had the opportunity to attend an extraordinary event organised by the European Commission in Vilnius. The event, called “EU SAVES LIVES Virtual Reality Experience” will take place in the capital city of Lithuania from 6th to 15th April. During the event, the EFHR along with…
Vilnius City District Court has ruled yet another verdict and obliged the Civil Registry Office to change the surname of a Lithuanian citizen who married a citizen of Polish to “Wojewoda”. According to the assessment of the court, the prohibition to adopt last name “Wojewoda” is disproportionate to the inconvenience that an applicant would suffer…
During the days 16th-21st April the lawyer of the European Foundation of Human Rights (EFHR) Lešek Jankovskij, attended a training course about volunteering coordinating organizations within Erasmus. The training took place in Vilnius, Lithuania and was organized by the Lithuanian National Agency and founded by Erasmus+. The attendees were representatives of organizations from different countries…
The European Foundation for Human Rights (EFHR) invites you to participate in a training course on „Rights of national minorities in the European Union: theory and practice“. Training course will be led by Katažyna Mikša PhD, international law and human rights expert and associate professor at Mykolas Romeris University. K. Mikša has over 11 years…
The European Foundation of Human Rights (EFHR) has been attending several trainings on hate speech during the last month. From 11th till 12th April, the lawyer of the EFHR, Lešek Jankovskij, attended a training on professional legal aid to victims of hate crime and hate speech. This event was in Prague, Czech Republic and its…
On this year′s May 23rd the European Foundation of Human Rights (EFHR) organised a free of charge training course entitled “Rights of National Minorities in the European Union: Theory and Practice”. This year EFHR is implementing the 4th edition of the project “Implementation of International Law” (Wdrażanie prawa międzynarodowego), which is supported by the Embassy…
The Vilnius City District Court ruled on the case of surname spelling of the Wardyn′s family’s third child. The court, having assessed the content of the legal norms regulating the surnames of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania in official documents, concludes that the current legal regulation does not provide any possibility to make entries…
On 21st June 2018 the European Foundation of Human Rights (EFHR) held a free of charge training course entitled „Hate speech in the cyberspace vs. freedom of speech“ at the Belorussian community centre – International Civic Initiative Centre “Nash Dom“. Training session was conducted by a lawyer of EFHR, Leszek Jankowski. He presented Foundation’s activities,…
On June 29th the European Foundation of Human Rights (EFHR) held a free of charge training course on hate speech and discrimination. Training course was held at Juodšiliai community’s Social Services Centre. The training course was conducted by the lawyer at EFHR, Lešek Jankovskij. Lawyer introduced Foundation’s activity fields to the audience – an organization…
Milena Kloczkowska graduated from the fourth year of law at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. She started her professional experience from the first year of her studies, including an internship at the “Lempart Feliński” law firm in Krakow, and then at the law firm “Legal: radcy prawni Kosoń Kupiec Mazurek” in Krakow.…
Olga Chizhevskaya is a third-year student of European Diplomacy at the University of Wroclaw. Her biggest interest are the technical processes that are taking place within the European Union. She is also interested in observing human rights and helping people in unfair situations. Olga believes that the issue of observing basic human rights and freedoms…
Paulina Kasprzak, a new intern at the European Foundation of Human Rights (EFHR), is a third-year student of European Diplomacy at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Wrocław. She already used her gained knowledge and skills by participating in the „Akcja Dyplomacja“ programme, which was organized by the Foreign Affairs Club at…
On July 24 this year there was a free training at the Multifunctional Culture Center in Niemenczyn (12 Švenčionių street, Nemenčinė, Vilnius region), conducted by the European Foundation for Human Rights (EFHR). The topics of the training were: hate speech, the spelling of names and surnames, and denial of discrimination. The training was conducted by…
On July 25th 2018 The Vilnius District Court passed yet another verdict on the original spelling case of names and surnames. This time, for a Lithuanian who married a citizen of the United States of America and took a surname with a “w”. A citizen of Lithuania, who lives in Alaska, reached out to the…
On 6 August this year, the Vilnius District Court adopted next ruling on the spelling of names and surnames. The applicant entered into a marriage with a citizen of the United Kingdom, P.J. Warne, however, in the marriage certificate the surname of the applicant was written with the letter “v”. After the adoption of a…
Jurgita Gurskaitė, a new intern at the European Foundation of Human Rights (EFHR), is a third-year student of World Politics and Economics at the Vytautas Magnus University, faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy. She also spent 6 months abroad under Erasmus+ programme at the University of Bergen in Norway. Her main interest areas are: domestic…
From Tuesday 21 to Friday 24 of August Giulia went to Moletai for her on-arrival training with other volunteers. The training was divided in four days and it aimed to help volunteers to understand the project and clarify any doubts they have. Every day Giulia attended morning language courses to improve her knowledge of Lithuanian.…
Veronika Lisauskaitė – is an International Politics and Development fourth year bachelor student of Vytautas Magnus University. During her studies Veronika was interested not only in history of diplomacy, political system, international economics, conflict resolution fields, but also she had a chance to study the international and migration law. Veronika was deepening her knowledge in…
Rebecca Venuto is a new Italian trainee that will be welcomed at the EFHR from the beginning of September to the end of December. She is recently graduated in International and Diplomatic Science at University of Trieste in Italy and she is going to pursue her postgraduate studies in International Law and Human Rights in…
Petra Mosetti is an Italian citizen, former student of the University of Maribor in Slovenia, where she studied Criminal Justice and Security Sciences. During her Bachelor degree, she spent 5 months in Lithuania, Vilnius, as part of the Erasmus + programme. This experience made her decide to move to the Netherlands, where she lived, as…
The European Foundation of Human Rights (EFHR) would like to invite you to take part in a training called “The Language Rights of Linguistic Minorities: International Standards and their Significance”. The training will be conducted by Dr Fernand Varennes – an extraordinary professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Pretoria and Cheng Yu…
The Project “Hate Speech Fighters” was held in Bansko, Bulgaria from 11 until 18 September 2018. European Foundation of Human rights’ (EFHR) lawyer Leszek Jankowski and intern Jurgita Gurskaitė took place in this training course. The project involved youth workers from 10 countries (Spain, Italy, The Netherlands, Estonia, Romania, Lithuania, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Bulgaria).…
The European Foundation of Human Rights (EFHR) is organising an international conference “Legal regulation for national minorities – theory and practice” which will take place on 29th of October, 2018. During the conference EFHR insights on situation of national minorities will be presented and speakers will be able to share with the good practices and…
Vilnius City District Court on October 1 made another decision on the original spelling of personal names. The Lithuanian citizen, who appealed to the court, in 2015, in the United Arab Emirates, married a British citizen and took her husband’s surname „Newman“ . The Civil Registry Office of the Legal Department of the Vilnius City…
In September 8th, The European Foundation for Human Rights (EFHR) participated in the discussion festival “Būtent!” in Birštonas, where made a debate on topic “Lithuanian language – is an idol or a alive instrument?”. Mark Adam Harold, Member of the Vilnius City Municipal Council, Audrys Antanaitis, Chairman of the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language,…
The European Foundation of Human Rights (EFHR) is organizing a debate on ” There is no place for racism in football “, which will take place on October 11 in Vilnius Youth Information Center. This discussion is part of the worldwide „Fare Network“ Action Week activities, which aims to stop discrimination and racism in football…
On Friday 12th of October 2018, trainees from the European Foundation of Human Rights (EFHR) and one EVS volunteer from Silas School visited Telia Vilnius History Nemuziejus, where it is possible to learn history of Lithuania and old Vilnius through new age technologies. The museum, located in the city centre, offers an innovative and original…
Yesterday, 11th of October European Fundation of Human Rights held a debate on “There is no place for racism in football”, during which was a discussion about tolerance limits, athletes’ experiences, the Equal Opportunities Office practice in combating discrimination, and the case law of the European Court of Justice in similar cases. Audience also sought…
2018 October 16 Leszek Jankowski, a lawyer from the European Human Rights Foundation (EFHR), was invited to conduct a training on legal regulation against discrimination in Lithuania, as well as tools to combat hate speech, hate crimes and other challenges faced by the Foundation. The training was attended by specialists from non-governmental organizations, state institutions…
After examining the case of the records of surnames of a children with dual citizenship in the records of civil status, Vilnius city District Court has decided to oblige the Civil Registry Office to change the surnames of children from “Žakė” to its original surname “Jacquet”, and to issue a birth certificate. In the French…
On the October 29th of 2018 the international conference “Legal regulation for national minorities – theory and practice” took place at the Vilnius City Municipality. The conference started with the opening remarks from Remigijus Šimašius, the Mayor of Vilnius. During the conference, 9 speakers delivered reports on these topics: Rights of national minorities in Lithuanian…
The free of charge training called “The Language Rights of Linguistic Minorities: International Standards and their Significance”, organized be the European Foundation oh Human Rights (EFHR), was held on October 30th 2018. Participates were invited to look closely at the international human rights standards which form the basis of the recently published UN practical guide…
Kseniya Susha – originally from Belarus – is a student of Master Program in Diplomacy at Vytautas Magnus University. She received her first degree in Intercultural Communications in Minsk and decided to put her theoretical knowledge in that field into practice throwing herself into a new environment – for Master Studies in Lithuania. Additionally, she…
November 16th marks the International Day for Tolerance. Its annual observance day was declared by UNESCO in 1995 to generate public awareness of the dangers of intolerance. Since then, the day is annually observed by The United Nations to educate people about the need for tolerance in society and to help them understand the negative…
On Monday, December 3rd of 2018 representatives of the European Foundation of Human Rights (EFHR) visited the Vilnius Salininkai gymnasium, where they delivered a lecture to pupils from 7 to 11 grades and their teachers on human rights and hate speech. Foundation’s lawyer Monika Guliakaitė briefly outlined the activities of the Foundation, key areas for…
On December 10th of 2018, marking the International Human Rights Day, the National Forum on Human Rights (NFHR) was held in Vilnius for the first time. This year discussions focused on the theme of opportunities. During the Forum specialists of various fields disscused the situation of human rights in Lithuania, also welcomed the public to…
On 8th of December 2018 District Court of Vilnius City issued a decision regarding the original spelling of names and surnames. The Applicant married a citizen of Lichtenstein and took his surname “Marxer”. However, The Vilnius Registrar’s Office (USC) rejected the addition of the surname with “x” to the records. In the decision, the Court…