European Foundation of Human Rights supports complaint

post_logo_efhrThe European Foundation of Human Rights has filed another petition to the General Prosecutor’s Office of Lithuania. The petition supports the complaint made on June 15th  2011 by Members of Lithuanian Parliament Jarosław Narkiewicz, Andrius Šedžius, Michał Mackiewicz and others and concerns a song by “Diktatūra” entitled “Šalčininkų rajonas” (‘Šalčininkų Region’). The authors of the complaint maintain that the song shows strong evidence of nationalism.

European Foundation of Human Rights in defence of Wilnoteka

On 12th August 2011, the Vilnius District Administrative Court received an appeal against the decision of the inspector of journalistic ethics concerning the case of the article “In defence of Polish schools in Lithuania”, published on the internet website of wilnoteka.lt. The complaint against the portal was submitted by Kazimieras Garšva, president of the Association “Vilnija”, who accused Wilnoteka of misleading the society about the real situation of Polish education in Lithuania and of inciting national discord.

A new course book for Civic Studies is underway.

On October 22nd 2011 during a free training entitled ‘Human Rights in Teaching Civic Studies’, which will take place in the House of Polish Culture in Vilnius and last from 9.30. to 18.30, the teachers will learn about progress of preparation of the new complementary Civic Studies course book written in Polish and designed for Polish schools in Lithuania.

Worth reminding is the fact that on June 29th this year, there was a meeting organized jointly by the European Foundation of Human Rights and Modern Poland Foundation which inaugurated the project Europeans, Poles, Citizens.

European Foundation of Human Rights reported a dozen or so cases of the initiation of criminal proceedings

On 18 August, 2011 European Foundation of Human Rights reported a dozen or so cases of the initiation of criminal proceedings to Prosecutor’s Office of Lithuania against people who called for the acts against the law in their Internet comments. These comments referred in a contemptuous, humiliating and insulting way to national minorities among Lithuanian citizens, and especially to those of Polish minority. The legal basis for the report of the initiation of criminal proceedings is art. 170 (act 2 and 3) of the Penalt Code which penalizes the incitement against any nation, race, ethnical, religious or any other group of people.