Lithuania’s Two COVID-19 Quarantines
The coronavirus pandemic posed an unprecedented challenge for the Lithuanian society and the decision-makers. Lithuania’s response to the disease was overseen by two different governments - a populist centre-left government in spring 2020 and a liberal-centre-right coalition formed after the 2020 October parliamentary elections. Since Lithuania’s approach to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic including its legal/constitutional framework has already been addressed, the present analysis will focus on the second quarantine as well as on some overarching issues concerning the rule of law, human rights and good governance.
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Lithuania’s Response to COVID-19: Quarantine Through the Prism of Human Rights and the Rule of Law
The COVID-19 outbreak constitutes an unprecedented challenge in the history of independent Lithuania, which in its 1992 Constitution embedded a broad list of human rights and freedoms. It seems that so far the emergency powers have been used proportionately and in a time-limited manner, albeit some concerns regarding human rights and the rule of law remain. While it is understandable that the pandemic required a quick response, more attention from the Lithuanian decision-makers on fundamental rights and the required balancing would have been welcome.
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Lithuania Introduces Individual Constitutional Complaint
On 21 March 2019, the draft constitutional amendment introducing individual constitutional complaint to the Lithuanian legal system passed the second vote in the Parliament of Lithuania (Seimas) and was finally adopted. As of 1 September 2019, individuals (natural and legal persons) will have the right to directly apply to the Constitutional Court of Lithuania claiming that a law or other legal act of the Parliament, the President, or the Government are not in line with the Constitution and is breaching their rights.
Continue reading >>Lithuania and Romania Complicit for Hosting CIA “Black Sites”
On 31 May 2018, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) confirmed in two simultaneously published judgments, Abu Zubaydah v. Lithuania and Al Nashiri v. Romania, that Lithuania and Romania were involved in the running of secret detention facilities of the CIA, so-called “black sites”, on their territories as well as their “complicity” in the execution of CIA’s secret extraordinary rendition programme for suspected terrorists.
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