A report published in October by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) calls on the Lithuanian authorities to set up a permanent LGBT equality working group and ensure better access to education for Roma people.
According to ECRI, since 2016, when the fifth report on the situation in Lithuania was published, progress has been made in many areas and good practices have been implemented, but some issues are still of concern.
According to the report, the LGBT community remains one of the most disadvantaged groups in Lithuanian society.
The commission proposes the establishment of a permanent LGBT equality working group in Lithuania, which would bring together relevant state services, institutions, and civil society actors. It also calls for a study to be carried out on the situation of people belonging to the LGBT community in Lithuania.
Based on the results of the study and the proposals of the working group, the commission recommends that Lithuania consider the development and adoption of a clearly defined LGBT equality strategy and action plan.
According to Jūratė Juškaitė, head of the Lithuanian Centre for Human Rights, despite the wide scope of problems faced by LGBT people in the country, there are still no responsible institutions or concrete plans to address them.
“There is still no working group or specific plan for the LGBT community in Lithuania, which would outline how we are going to reduce everyday problems, such as homophobic, biphobic, or transphobic bullying, how we are going to reduce stigma, how we are going to address specific problems of transgender people, such as those related to healthcare, for example,” said Juškaitė.
Promoting Roma inclusion
The ECRI report also highlights the integration and inclusion of Roma people in Lithuanian society.
According to the 2021 census, only 5 percent of Roma people in Lithuania were in employment, most of them self-employed, often in insecure and low-paid jobs.
The requirement to have completed primary education and to have an appropriate certificate to prove it remains a major obstacle to vocational training, the report says.
The commission said the authorities should step up efforts to bring Roma education indicators up to the same level as the majority of the country’s population.
While the situation at the formal level is improving, with more Roma completing primary education or more grades, there is still a lack of quality in the area of integration, according to Juškaitė.
“We are faced with teenagers who may be in the eighth grade but who can hardly read or count. In schools, both because of preconceptions that Roma children are ‘unteachable’ and a lack of resources, children are deprived of the most basic knowledge and the opportunity to find a job and a place in society in the future,” she said.
One of ECRI’s proposals is to lower the entry requirements for vocational education.
“Is it really important that a young person attending a vocational school should have a 10th-grade education? Such and similar requirements prevent Roma from integrating into society, and at the same time, they place an additional burden on the state’s social security system,” Juškaitė pointed out.
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