By NHRI mandate
By topic
Enabling environment for HRDs & CSOs
Environmental HRDs
Freedom of assembly and association
Freedom of expression
Freedom of the media
Funding of CSOs
Non-government controlled territories
Prohibition of discrimination
Protection of HRDs
Right to a fair trial
Right to an effective remedy
Right to privacy
Right to respect for private and family life
Sustainable Development Goals
Whistleblowers
Women HRDs
By country
Monitoring by the Parliamentary Ombudspersons’ Office of the Republic of Lithuania found evidence of transnational repression of human rights defenders. On 12 March 2024 a prominent Russian political activist and outspoken critic of the current regime in Russia, Leonid Volkov, was attacked near his home in Vilnius by an unknown person with a hammer and briefly hospitalised. Lithuanian and Polish authorities subsequently made statements alleging that the attack was “organised by Russia”. In April 2024, the Lithuanian Prosecutor General’s Office confirmed that several Polish citizens had been detained in connection to the attack by the Polish authorities and added that the attack was fuelled by Mr Volkov’s “beliefs and his views”. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, the State Security Department, Lithuanian politicians and experts blamed it on the Kremlin regime and the Russian special services.
According to the NHRI, the most important gap in the protection of human rights defenders (HRDs) nationally is that there are no specific initiatives, frameworks, or policies aiming to protect HRDs. In the case of HRDs, only general provisions apply. This includes anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) provisions (which are also not targeting HRDs specifically), introduced by the amendment of the Lithuanian Code of Civil Procedure on 22 December 2022 in article 95. The amendments came into force on 31 December 2022.