850th Meeting, 35th Session, Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)

Expert and delegation.
Once again, I would like to pronunciation.
The Lithuanian translation will be Chinese channel.
Yes.
Thank you so much.
I call to order the 805th meeting of the Committee on the rights of persons with disabilities.
The committee will now proceed with agenda item five, Coation of reports submitted by state party under Article 35 of the Convention.
This afternoon, the committee will begin its consideration of the combined second and third period report of Lithuania.
I have the honor to warmly welcome the distinguished delegation of the Republic of Lithuania, headed by miss Lia Gurganne, Vice Minister of Social Security and level of the Republic of Lithuania and head of Delegation.
Vice Minister Excellency, a very warm welcome to you and to all members of your delegations.
I also warmly welcome the representative of the Independent Monitoring mechanism of Lithuania.
Captioning international sign language and interpretation in English, French, Spanish, and Arabic are available and also Lithuanian translation also.
This meeting is also webcast on UN webTV.
Today, the task force facilitating the dialogue with Lithuania is composed of miss Lavensovs, Mr.
Floyd Morris, and Mr.
Alfredo Kouassi.
The task force is supported by the Secretariat.
Miss Ravnsko will lead close to one, and Mr.
Alfredo Koisi will lead close to two, and Mr.
Ploid Morris will lead close to three.
The dialogue will follow a back to back question and answer from it.
During its round, committee expert will raise their questions and dist delegation will then be given the opportunity to respond.
Today, we will first address clause to one covering Article 129 and Article 31, 32, and 33 of the convention.
Following 15 minutes break, we will continue with follow up questions concerning clause to one.
We will then begin clause to two covering Article 10 to 20 of the convention.
I wish to draw the delegation's attention to the importance of carefully timed management.
Where a question cannot be poorly answered within the available time, the relevant information may be provided to the committee in writing following the dialogue.
Now, I would like to give the floor to the head of delegation.
Excellency, miss Lita Grigaliene, Vice Minister of the Social Security and Labor of the Republic of Lithuania to deliver her opening remarks.
The head of delegation had a maximum speech time of 20 minutes.
Excellency, you have the floor.
Gerber.
Madam Chair, honorable members of the committee, Honorable representatives of the Community of Persons with disability.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for the opportunity to present Lithuania's progress in implementing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
It is an honor for me to lead the Lithuanian delegation.
Joining me are Irin chair of the S Parliamentary Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a member of the Parliament.
A Ara Smchky Minister, plenipoentiary, and deputy to the extraordinary and ppoentiary ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva, as well as colleagues from the Agency of the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Ministes of the Environment, Social Security and Labor, Health, education, science, and Sports and Justice, and the Ministry of the Interior, all of whom are ready for constructive dialogue.
Last September, the 15th anniversary of the entry into force of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities commemorated in Lithuania, once again reaffirmed the state's commitment to creating an inclusive and accessible society for all.
I would like to express my delight that in June this year, Lithuania's candidate Davila Keita was elected as a member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The fact that we continue to enjoy the trust of other states to participate in the work of this important committee is seen by us as a recognition of the expertise that Lithuanian experts and our consistent commitment to implementing the convention.
Lithuania already has experience of the committee's work.
Professor Jonas Russo was a member during the previous term.
For us, I The framework law that we have has established a new attitude to the persons with disabilities and the concepts of this law are in line with international human rights standards and the Agency of the Protection of Persons with Disabilities, which is the central institution responsible for the participation of people with disabilities in public life and the assessment of their individual needs and coordination of help.
The new model is applied since 2024 and it helps comprehensively assessing individual needs and environmental factors and through the provision of coordinated support, it helps overcome the barriers preventing these people from participating fully in society on an equal footing with others and the coordination of help based on the one stop shop principle, when it's not the individual who seeks out support from institutions, but the institutions that seek out The individual in order to provide the support they need together with the new disability assessment system increases the accessibility of services and ensures that support is organized more effectively.
Over the course of the year, the number of decisions made by the agency for the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities regarding the coordination of support and the drawing up of support plans has almost doubled from around 8,000 to nearly 15,000.
In the first half of this year, institutions, um have been given more than 11,000 support plans to be implemented.
This shows the large scale of the coordination of help.
Amendments to the Equal Opportunities Act have established clear regulations on the provision of reasonable accommodation, strengthening the right of people with disabilities to equal opportunities and non discrimination.
Currently, European Union Equality Directive provisions are being transposed into the Lithuanian legislation concerning Multiple intersecting and linked discrimination.
Particular attention is paid to the well being of children with disabilities and their families.
In 2025, more than 1,000 families raising children with disabilities received social care services whilst funding for these services increased from more than 34 million in 2022 to more than 44 million in 2025.
Community based services and early intervention are being expanded.
In 2025, More than 950 children with disabilities received services at children's day centers and nearly 1,800 children were provided with assistive devices.
From 2026, early intervention has been established as a permanent service.
In addition, under the European Child Guarantee, a project worth 56 million euros is being launched to increase the availability of services for children with moderate and severe disabilities and their families across 54 local authorities.
Significant progress has been achieved in recent years.
In the institutions under the Ministry of Social Security and Labor, the number of children with disabilities living in institutional care has fallen 46-4.
At the same time, forms of care close to the family and community are being expanded.
In 2026, there were eight family homes housing 49 children with disabilities, Moreover, in 2024, we continued to develop the professional care model and the institution of the permanent career was established.
Permanent carers are among other things, able to look after children with disabilities.
Lithuanian is particularly proud that In December 2024, the last of the old style large children's care homes were closed.
Since then, children have been placed exclusively in family or community based care settings.
Children with disabilities cannot now be placed in large care institutions with the exception of specialized nursing and social care units for children with severe disabilities.
Since 2024, Two such care units have been established and they have 23 places for children with severe disability.
Lithuanian is consistently raising public awareness of the rights of people with disabilities and is combating stereotypes.
In 2024, 25, more than 600 educational activities and events were organized, and they were attended by more than 20,000 people.
Although public awareness is growing, stereotypes and discrimination still limit the opportunities available to people with disabilities.
Measures to promote education and raise awareness remain important.
With regard to accessibility, state and local authority bodies are required to provide information through accessible communication methods chosen by people with disabilities, and they are supposed to publish key information on the websites in plain language and in Lithuanian sign language.
To implement these changes, the agency's consultation Center Since its establishment in 2024 to date, has provided around 5,000 consultations.
Lithuania has developed a national building accessibility monitoring system statis, which enables progress to be assessed and measures to improve accessibility to be planned.
In 2025, nearly 5,000 public facilities were assessed.
A public accessibility map was created and universal design recommendations were drawn up.
All newly registered public transport vehicles must be adapted for people with disabilities.
Over the past four years, the proportion of accessible transport has increased significantly.
In municipal transport 45-61%.
Then on long distance buses 3-34% and ferries are fully accessible and the proportion of accessible trains will increase from 44% to 76% by 2027.
More than 73% of educational establishments are at least partially accessible to people with mobility impairments.
More than 200 projects to adapt primary health care infrastructure have been implemented in accordance with the principles of universal design.
Around 27 million euros has been allocated to these projects.
The number of services adapted for people with disabilities in museums has increased almost five times and in performing arts venues more than three fold.
Although significant progress has been made in the area of accessibility in recent years, the adaptation of the physical information and digital environments remains one of the top priorities.
Lithuania has strengthened the inclusion of people with disabilities in crisis management and civil protection by ensuring accessible information and contingency planning.
More than 3 million euros have been allocated to local authorities to adopt over 500 shelters.
In 2025, 300 specialists took part in civil protection training.
Legislative amendments have been drafted to strengthen guarantees of legal capacity for people with disabilities, expand measures to support decision making and increase opportunities for the independent exercise of rights.
A pilot scheme for the decision making support Service was launched in 2019 and 2023 in six regions of the country.
During this period, more than 500 people receive support and currently more than 900 people are receiving support.
In addition, 42 legal proceedings initiated, out of which 17 resulted in the full or partial restoration of the individual's legal capacity.
For individuals who due to their disability find it difficult to exercise their right to defense independently, the mandatory participation of a defense lawyer and state funded secondary legal aid are guaranteed.
In 2024 and 2025, this was provided in approximately 3,300 cases each year.
The World Health Organization's Quality Rights Initiative is being implemented in Lithuania.
Since 2024, the National Human Rights Monitoring System has covered the seven largest psychiatric institutions and assessments are carried out by a network of 16 trained assessors.
There are around 116 mental health centers operating in the country with plans to expand the network of daycare centers and increase the number of community treatment teams 3-19.
Currently, 23 specialized comprehensive support centers are accredited and operational, providing emotional, psychological, and legal support to people who have experienced domestic violence across the country.
Funding for these centers has doubled since 2023 and in 2026, it reached around 3.3 million euros.
75,000 euros are allocated annually to the Methodological Support Center for Specialized Comprehensive Support Centers.
Close cooperation with non governmental organizations representing the interests of people with disabilities has enabled the systematic integration of disability considerations into mechanisms for the prevention, protection, and support relating to domestic violence.
The development and widespread application of algorithms criteria for identifying disability methodological recommendations for local authorities and targeted training have strengthened professionals' ability to recognize violence against people with disabilities and to provide individualized support tailored to their needs.
To tackle the systemic problems of invisibility in the area of sexual violence, the National Center for Information and Sexual Violence Pre Bilk was established with an annual budget of 100,000 euros allocated to its operations.
Last year, 176 people contacting the center, 60 of whom had disabilities and support was provided to five unique individuals with disabilities.
Lithuania is consistently implementing the transition from institutional care to commonly based community based services with the aim of ensuring the right of people with disabilities to live independently and be full members of the community.
Regional service deployment maps based on the needs of people with disabilities and their families as identified by local authorities have formed the basis for planning the expansion of the community based service network across the country.
By 2030, the plan is to create around 1,200 community accommodation places and expand daycare services for more than 800 people with disabilities.
Thereby strengthening their opportunities to live in the community.
2020-2024, 95 community service facilities were established across six regions.
More than 36 million euros were allocated for their development, enabling 550 people to transition from institutional care to community based living arrangements.
Since 2024, the case management model has been implemented in almost all of Lithuania's municipalities, helping people with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities to access services in the community that meet their individual needs.
Since the model's launch, case management has already been applied to nearly 1,300 people.
Since 2020, the number of adapted homes has more than doubled from around 400 to nearly 1,000, while state funding for home adaptation has increased from around 1.7 million to nearly 5.6 million euros.
Lithuania has significantly improved access to technical assistance measures.
The number of beneficiaries has risen from around 33,000 to nearly 38,000.
The approval rate for applications has increased from nearly 88% to over 95%.
While state funding has almost doubled from around 3.8 million to over 7.4 million euros.
The Social Services Act provides for a respite care service to which 3.2 million euros are allocated annually.
Preventive social services and comprehensive family services are available in all local authorities to increase The family's independence and prevent social risks.
2021-2025, expenditure on cash social assistance increased by 78% from over 700 million to 1.25 billion euros.
Over the same period, the level of basic social benefits rose by 75% while funding for compensation for the costs of providing individual assistance more than doubled.
From 187 million euros in 2020 to nearly 379 million in 2025.
The financial security of families raising children with disabilities has been consistently strengthened.
Over the past five years, child benefits have increased by 75%.
From 2026, a child with a disability will receive a monthly payment of nearly 206 euros.
Lithuania is implementing an inclusive education policy.
In the 2025 26 academic year, nearly 44,000.
Pupils had special educational needs of whom around 37,500 were educated in mainstream classrooms.
To strengthen schools capacity to educate children with disabilities, nine regional special education centers are in operation while funding for educational support has increased from over 112 million euros in 2022 to over 188 million euros in 2025.
Lithuania is consistently improving the accessibility of healthcare services for people with disabilities by applying an assessment model for healthcare facilities that are accessible to people with reduced mobility and by establishing mandatory accessibility requirements for emergency departments.
Okay.
Outpatient nursing services are provided at home to individuals including people with disabilities.
Over the past five years, the volume of these services has increased by almost 90%, with around 70,000 patients benefiting from them.
Last year, nearly 34 million was allocated to cover co payments for reimbursable medicines.
This support reached around 400,000 low income residents, including people with disabilities.
More than 49,000 people with disabilities are employed in the open labor market, but their overall employment rate has remained at around 30% in recent years.
This indicates that despite new measures including a 5% quota in the public sector, significant barriers to employment still remain in the labor market.
We are currently assessing the effectiveness of measures to support the employment of people with disabilities and will decide on how to improve them based on the results.
In recent years, income support and social protection have been increased.
From 2025, a proportion of all date pensioners with severe disabilities have received pensions that are 7% to 50% higher, while compensation for the costs of personal assistance rages 131-569 euros per month.
Chair, members of the committee, representatives of the disability community.
Although significant progress has been made in recent years in strengthening the rights of people with disabilities, we recognize that we must continue the changes we have begun.
We are carefully considering the committee's recommendations and see them as an opportunity to further improve the daily lives of people with disabilities, to reduce remaining barriers, and create an even more open and inclusive society.
We are committed to continuing this work alongside with people with disabilities and their organizations, deciding not for them, but with them together with those people.
Thank you.
We are ready to answer the committee's questions.
Excellency, on behalf of the committee, I thank you for your introductory statement.
I would like to now give the floor to the representative of the Independent Monitoring mechanism of Lithuania.
The representative of independent monitoring mechanism has maximum speaking time of 5 minutes.
You have the floor.
Thank you, Chair, Distinguished chair of the committee and members of this delegation.
My name is Clementina Grzian and I am chair of Lithuanian Monitoring Commission on the rights of persons with disabilities, the independent monitoring mechanism under Article 33 of the convention.
On behalf of ABA Commission, thank you for the opportunity to take part in this review.
We welcome recent progress.
Disability rights are more visible and positive steps has been taken in personal assistance, dense utilization, and emergency planning.
However, our monitoring shows a clear gap between the law and everyday lives of persons with disabilities.
Implementation of across our country.
Access to right and services often depends on where a person lives or how an institution understand the law instead of person's needs.
This creates unequal opportunities.
First, independent living remains out of reach for many persons with disability, especially those with high support needs.
Community receives different between municipalities.
Personal assistance and other support are not always based on individual needs and preferences.
Families often provide support that should be ensured by the state.
Second, Equality and non discrimination remain a serious concern.
The law of reasonable accommodation has been strengthened, but is still not understood or provided in many areas.
Persons with disabilities therefore continue to experience discrimination.
Third, accessibility remains a major barrier.
Many public buildings, transport services, websites, and information are still inaccessible.
Monitoring and enforcements are too weak and divided between different institutions.
Fourth, legal capacity raised serious human rights concerns.
Reforms are beginning discussed, but the proposed change still allow decisions to be made for persons.
We don't ensure enough support for people to make their own decisions based on their will and preferences.
Inclusive education also remains a challenge.
Being in mainstream schools does not actually mean being included.
Many learners with disabilities still do not receive the support and resembles a reasonable accommodation they need.
Emergency preparedness has improved, but it remains uneven, especially at the local level.
Many persons with disabilities would need help during an evacuation.
However, clear support plans, accessible communication, transport, and shelters are still lacking.
Finally, Lithuania needs better disability data.
Without data on violence, accessibility, independent living and women and girls with disabilities, it is difficult to plan policy and monitoring progress.
As the independent monitoring mechanism, we identify these gaps and support improvement through independent monitoring and constructive dialogue.
We will attending this session as observers and listen carefully.
We believe the committee's conclusions will guide further forms and reforms and monitoring work.
Above all, we hope this review will improve the everyday lives of persons with disabilities and support the full implementation of a convention in Lithuania.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for your statement.
Now we will proceed to the first round of back to back questions and answering regarding close to one, covering Article 129 and Article 3132 33 of the convention.
This segment will last for 60 minutes and will conclude for 30 pm.
The first round will be led by a member of the task Ace facilating the dialogue.
I will now call upon miss Rovaniks the tasks coordinator for opening remarks and to begin the questions.
Miss Rob, you have the floor.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good afternoon.
I have the honor of serving as task force coordinator for the CRPD Committee's Review of Lithuania.
I'm very pleased to be here and to welcome you warmly on behalf of my colleagues and myself, Committee members Mr.
Alfred Kwasi and Mr.
Floyd Morris and I together form the three pillars of this task force.
Lithuania is a country rich in history and culture, which has been shaped over the centuries by adversity and prosperity.
We look forward to learning more about the work that you are doing to protect the rights of persons with disabilities.
Let me start by thanking the head of delegation for her opening statement.
The committee welcomes this constructive dialogue which occurs further to the state party submission of its combined second and third periodic reports pursuant to Article 35 of the Convention.
We thank the government of the Republic of Lithuania for sharing information on the progress that you've made in implementing the convention through your report.
Certainly, since the time that Lithuania has ratified the convention, you've taken the steps to implement it.
These measures include reviews of laws and policies to harmonize them with the convention.
We acknowledge the positive steps that you've taken.
At the same time, we note that additional steps may be needed.
We're guided by information received from you as the state party, from civil society, and from others.
We are committed to using this dialogue productively in order to receive greater information from you so that we may provide recommendations on what still needs to be done.
During this dialogue, we will seek clarification and additional information through questions that we've prepared further to our analyses of the material available to this point.
As members of the committee, we work independently and impartially to identify areas and means of improvement.
As task force member responsible for cluster one, let me turn now to my questions, and I'll start with questions on Articles one to four.
In its 2016 concluding observations, the CRPD Committee recommended to Lithuania that the state party ensure that all existing and new laws and regulations and the definitions used therein comply with the human rights based model of disability in accordance with the Convention.
Um, it's clear that you've made conscientious efforts to create new statutes or at least a new statute, I'm sorry, the law on the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities of the Republic of Lithuania, the LFPRPD as I'll call it by that acronym.
And you've indicated in your reply to the list of issues that the focus is now on social inclusion, rights, environmental barriers, and participation, not just on medical criteria.
As you know, the Human Rights model of Disability underlies our convention.
It enables action to be taken to ensure substantive equality for persons with disabilities.
It's premised on the social model geared towards protecting and promoting the dignity of persons with disabilities and committed to recognizing them as rights holders.
It seeks to set aside the medical model of disability as well as charitable approaches.
It aims to ensure that persons with disabilities are all included in society and respected on an equal basis with others.
So the basic purpose, principles and ideas underlying the convention and underlying the human rights model can be found in the convention itself, as well as general comment number six on Article 5.
So there's some confusion, however, I'll say, as to whether some of these underlying concepts, frameworks, and practices in the LRPRD reflect the human rights model or an outdated medical model.
And there's also some confusion as to whether the concepts, frameworks, and practices in the legislation that are meant to be based on the human rights model actually align fully with that model.
And let me give you an example.
This example stems from the definition section, Article 2 of the LPRPD.
While the definition at Article 2 13 seems to understand disability as involving the interaction of impairments and barriers in society, the definition of person with a disability, which is Article 25, is less clear and um I'll point out that 213 disability talks about a long term functional impairment of a person's body that due to environmental factors prevents the person from fully and effectively participating in society on an equal basis with others.
But 25 talks about, this is the definition of person with a disability, a person who has been assigned a disability level or a participation level of 55% or less in accordance with the procedure established by this law.
So my question to you is, could you please clarify whether the law on the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities is meant to be based on the human rights model and perhaps speak a bit to why there is this kind of fluidity in the definitions I've given.
Also, if you could speak to the harmonization efforts that are taking place.
What concrete steps are being taken to ensure not only that the definitions used are based on the human rights model, but that all laws and regulations are based on this model.
So perhaps I'll pause there and let you respond to these questions.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Excellency, you have the floor.
I would like to kindly ask you to expert when you give the question, I do more slowly because therefore the translation.
Thank you so much.
Aug Klausa, thank you very much for the question.
I will give the floor to the representative of the Ministry of Social Security and Labor, Tiva Zabaraski.
The question is on how we ensure the harmonization with the human rights model of all the definitions.
Thank you for the floor.
I will speak on behalf of the Lithuanian delegation and I will give you the information.
As of 2024, we have the disability reform which was drafted in consultation with the society and working with the disability organizations.
We discussed the introduction of various definitions and concepts and we have abandoned such concepts which, are not dignified, that is, um, they're disabled and so on.
And those Those concepts that we are using have been chosen after public consultations and we talked with the scientific community as well.
I would like to mention that the law that we have is also based on the recommendations of the World Bank in relation to the treatment of the disability itself and I This is a long term functional impairment of certain acquired qualities that prevent people from participating in the public life together with all other individuals.
This probably hides the treatment of the disability itself, we have to take into account not only the medical part, that is the change in functional abilities of the individual, but also the assistance that is needed for the individual for them to be able to participate on equal terms in the public life with everybody else.
At the moment, 40% is the evaluation of support and assistance and 60% is the disability assessment.
So that people can live in public life on equal terms with everybody else regarding the integration of the concepts in all other laws.
The concepts that we have in the law on people with disabilities rights.
All those definitions have been integrated in all other pieces of legislation and the government has indicated to all the authorities drafting the legislation when making amendments to the legislation to take into account the new concepts and to abandon the concepts that are not dignified enough.
And that degrade the dignity of the past.
That's about it.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you for your response.
I just want to add that I understand what you're saying, you've consulted with other organizations, international organizations.
However, I would like to flag that there is still some confusion as to whether or not this is truly on all fours with the human rights model of disability.
It may be something to think about a bit further.
I wanted to ask one quick question, which is about consultation.
So thank you for explaining that you've consulted in developing this law.
Is there a consistent practice for consultation? Are there steps that have been put in place that you follow each time you are doing anything, whether it's the development of legislation or review, et cetera, that involves persons with disabilities? Thank you.
A, thank you for the question.
The question is, are there any practices of constant consulting with NGOs and there are any measures taken to review the actions when we talk to people with disabilities.
Miss Sabarski reply to the question.
I would like to mention that when the disability reform came into force in 2024, the law on people with disabilities has and enshrined the obligation for public authorities to consult and cooperate with NGOs.
We have the settled practice that all the legislation that are being publicly considered, they have to be submitted to NGOs as well that represent people with disabilities and their comments and proposals are always taken into consideration in working groups.
We always include into those working groups people with disabilities at the ministerial level.
When we speak about questions concerning people with disabilities, we talk to them about how can the society be made more friendly towards them.
This practice is very well settled and the NGOs are very actively participating in it.
Thank you.
Thank you for your response.
It's interesting to hear about the consultation.
From what we have heard and learned, it seems that there is concern that there isn't always consultation, particularly at the municipal levels, and it may not be very clear what the consultation practice is or will be.
I think that it's something that could be further clarified.
Let me move now to questions about reasonable accommodation.
We've heard that the principle of reasonable accommodation, which is defined in the law is legally operative, primarily in the field of employment.
But that its denial is still not recognized as a form of disability discrimination in other sectors such as education, health, justice, and social and other services.
I wonder if you can speak to that and in particular, indicate what steps will be taken to address this, to extend the concept of reasonable accommodation to fields such as education, health, and services.
Yes, I'll pause there.
Thank you.
Sic, thank you for this question.
The question about reasonable accommodation and what are further steps going to be? This question will be answered by the representative of the Ministry of Education and Science, Regina Valtita.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you for this possibility to provide the information in the area of education, especially general education.
Apart from the general legal acts and regulations, we also have the governmental decision, which stipulates certain indicators and conditions to be established at schools in order to implement general curricula.
We have five specific criteria which in general are in line with the legal acts regulating reasonable accommodation of premises.
The regulation is changing continually.
We are monitoring the situation and in order to improve it, The government reviews the requirements every year, and in 2024, 25, schools had to comply with one of the five requirements in order to implement their curricula.
In 2026, they had to comply with two and beginning with next year, they will have to comply with three specific requirements.
We must admit that currently we have two systems.
By which we monitor the data of accessibility.
This is the education information system where we monitor the compliance with the criteria that I mentioned, the criteria adopted by the governmental decision.
As of 2027, the ministries have agreed that all educational establishments will provide information on the accessibility to buildings based on the general requirements in the national status system.
Thank you.
And the representative of the Ministry of Health, I Balchu will further elaborate on this question.
Excuse me, Rama Andrés, who will take the floor now.
Thank you for the floor.
I'd like to provide additional information about accessibility and reasonable accommodation in the area of health services.
The Ministry of Health is actively monitoring how a Health institutions are accommodating the conditions to people with disabilities.
Every year, we have a survey of health institutions where those institutions provide information about what they have done, what they have accomplished, and what is the accessibility in order to receive health protection services.
According to the latest information, 95% of healthcare institutions have adapted the entrance to the institution.
But we do understand that There are more challenges, namely the accessibility within the institution, also the provision of tactile conditions, the use of tactile devices, and the availability of tactile information.
So we actively communicate with healthcare institutions and we've continued to monitor the situation in order to make sure proper accessibility.
Let me also stress that in the Ministry of Health, we have a working group which includes also people with disabilities and they also point out areas that need to be improved, the most sensitive areas where conditions for people with disabilities have to be improved.
Thank you, and I Now, the floor goes to the representative of the Agency for Persons with Disabilities, Ala Chaplkin.
Thank you, honorable members of the committee.
Thank you for the floor.
On behalf of the Lithuanian delegation, I'd like to further inform you that the loan equal Opportunities stipulates that the failure to create proper conditions for people with disabilities amount to discrimination based on disabilities.
All institutions and Everybody have to implement this law and people can file a complaint either to the ombudsman's office or through courts about the improper implementation of the laws.
We understand this not only as the adaptation of physical infrastructure, but also sometimes even when there are no possibilities to physically adapt a building, people must to be able to access certain services.
The institutions then have to look for other ways how to provide those services.
This is a much wider phenomenon, not only physical accessibility.
If it's impossible to physically adapt a building or if it's too big a financial burden, then we must look for other ways to ensure that people can get the services they need in any other way.
Thank you.
That's been a very elaborate response.
Thank you very much for your response.
I would like to ask a follow up question though, which is that whether it's the Ministry of Health or within the context of education, you've indicated that you were working on things through working groups, et cetera Um, is there a timeline? I mean, it's true that these issues can take time, but at the same time, we need to ensure that persons with disabilities can have appropriate access and reasonable accommodation within a time frame that in itself is reasonable.
What is the timeline that you were working on working with? Um, let me ask a couple of other questions before I pause.
My next question also deals with reasonable accommodation, consumer services is another area, transportation.
These are, unemployment.
These are areas that continue to generate the highest number of disability related discrimination complaints received by your Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsman.
I'm wondering if there are specific measures planned or in place to reduce the complaints about discrimination in these areas.
Um, will there be some incentives or other means to be given to ensure that reasonable accommodation is brought in more effectively? Someone had mentioned remedies as well, indicating that one can go to the courts, et cetera, and I'm wondering if you can provide a bit more information.
Are the remedies in the nature of specific performance? Do they require that the place or the context become accessible or the discriminatory barrier be removed? Um, are there other remedies that are available, monetary compensation, for example? How do people know of these remedies? Is the equality body out there, providing information to the public? Does one need to seek a lawyer or is it possible to access this remedial pathway without a lawyer? If you could speak a bit about both remedies and the timeline, that would be wonderful.
Thank you.
Thank you for your questions.
The questions are about whether we work through working groups, also a timeline in order to ensure that people with disabilities have adequate accessibility and reasonable accommodation.
What's the timeline you're working with? And the second question is about consumer services and whether we have a plan specific measures in order to reduce the number of complaints in these areas and whether there are incentives or other means in order to ensure proper accommodation adaptation of the environment.
Mr.
Regina Lot from the Ministry of Education will reply to this.
Additionally, the Ministry of Health, Ramon Andrés and further on, it will be replied by Ala Aplan from the Agency for the Production of Rights of People with Disabilities.
Thank you for the floor.
Yes, indeed.
We have goals in the strategic documents that by 2030, we have to achieve at least 20% of total accommodation indicator in educational establishments and this would be really a significant change as compared with the current 3% level.
We have a specific timeline for the financial measures in different sectors for the different levels of education.
We have funds planned For general education up to 2027 with a possibility to extend to 29, 63 schools should be adapted.
For this, 46 million euros have been allocated and in professional education, all 44 professional schools are participating and more than 5 million euros have been allocated.
The period for the implementation is until 2029.
Thank you for the floor.
I would like to inform you about improving the accessibility to health care services.
We do understand that that accommodating premises requires a lot of finances.
So the Ministry of Health has adopted a decision that every healthcare establishment must have rules for the provision of services to people with disabilities.
There has to be a description of rules how these services are provided in each healthcare institution.
Let me draw attention to the fact that each healthcare institution wishing to obtain a new license must submit these rules of procedure to the National National Accreditation Service.
This is a necessary precondition in order to receive a license for the provision of health care services.
Also, in order to ensure that people are not discriminated in terms of health care service provision, the state accreditation Service has a commission on the compensation of damages to patients, and they analyze all complaints received, including the complaints from people with disabilities.
Thank you.
There was a question about ways and means of informing people with disabilities on the legal remedies available to them, whether lawyers are necessary, et cetera This question will be replied by the representative of the Agency for people with disabilities, English applicant, and also Ire Bal Tuna from the Ministry of Justice.
Thank you for your question.
I would like to add that we have equal opportunities ombudsperson and people can complain to them concerning discrimination, including discrimination on the grounds of disabilities.
The law on equal opportunities encompasses various areas and various grounds for discrimination, and we specifically focus on the ground of disability.
Once there is a complaint received by the ombudsperson, the complaint is being analyzed and certain findings are then presented.
Informing people about their rights, well, we have many campaigns for raising awareness, and NGOs also contribute to this in order to spread the message that people have the right and the possibility to address the equal opportunities ombudsperson.
We also have the Lithuanian Administrative Dispute Commission where people can complain if they don't receive necessary services from municipal state institutions.
Once the complaint is analyzed, the institution or the one who did not implement all the rules properly have to rectify the situation.
You don't need a lawyer here.
Complaints can be filed written in simple language or understandable language because then the ombudsperson's service continues to analyze the complaint, the contact with the They contact the offender and they communicate with all the parties.
Chair Committee members, thank you for the floor.
On behalf of the Lithuanian delegation, I would like to add something speaking about the Equal Opportunities Ombudsman's Office.
It is noteworthy that people with disabilities recognize abuse and discrimination regarding disability more often and that's why they address the office more frequently with the request for advice.
Statistically, in 2021, 125 complaints were received and in 2024, the number has doubled 290 times, so we can see that they recognize those forms of discrimination more and more.
Speaking about the Ministry of Justice, to what extent they contribute to the publication of that information, we have drafted an electronic publication for victims of such abuse about their rights, and this has been publicized on our website.
This has been translated in all foreign languages, and it has been adapted to people with disabilities.
Speaking about the state guaranteed legal aid, They are being informed about such rights to people with disabilities and we have the state guaranteed legal aid and this has been adapted to people with hearing disabilities.
Those and those individuals have the mandatory right to receive the state guaranteed lawyer and they have this right to receive free of charge state legal counsel.
Thank you.
Thank you for your responses.
We will have time later in cluster two, et cetera, to enter into more detail about some of these issues including access to justice.
But I would like to move on at the moment to Article 6 dealing with women with disabilities.
Um, there was a national study conducted by the Lithuanian Union of Persons with Disabilities in 2024 and it found that mothers with disabilities continue to experience intersectional discrimination, and this is due to a lack of flexible and individualized parenting support, parenting support services being inadequate.
The study concluded that the main barriers arose from insufficient practical support enabling women with disabilities to exercise their parenting responsibilities on an equal basis with others.
I wonder if I can move us back to the question about legal remedies for discrimination and ask whether there are legal analytical frameworks that are used to address intersectional discrimination.
When discrimination affects, for example, a person with disabilities, not only because of their disability, but because of other factors like gender, Um, this study on mothers with disabilities and the unique gendered impact that they experience shows how policies relating to gender and motherhood in particular could benefit from integrating concerns about women with disabilities and how policies relating to persons with disabilities would be enhanced with information concerns relating to gender and women with disabilities.
So what measures are being taken to ensure that there is this mainstreaming of policies? As I said, I'm curious as well about the frameworks that are being used for analyzing intersectional discrimination at the equality body.
Thank you.
Agus Clausus thank you.
These are the questions, the insufficient aid to enable women with disabilities and what legal basis is used to solve such cases of discrimination, how to analyze this intersectional discrimination and how to ensure equality.
The question will be answered by the Ministry of Social Security and Labor, Loretta delichn.
Comes lado Gatt cusp motors pt We have to admit that women with disabilities, especially having become mothers encounter huge challenges and that's why the state at national level has allocated funding to families to provide social care services and especially focuses on those families with children under two years of age and under three years of age, these are children with disabilities and when one of the parents has a disability, in that case, the state funds the support of a social worker and of an individual care worker.
Also, the case management, if a complex or composite assistance is necessary for the family, then there is a model that has been chosen to fund the service to the families with a child under three years of age that has a disability.
This is because we are helping the mothers to take care of their children, but also to allow the children to be educated together with other children in preschool educational establishments.
Also, there are social services provided to people with severe disabilities.
This is in case of social care of people with severe disabilities, These are the services provided at home or daycare centers or social establishments where people are accommodated.
The state provides a lot of attention and the funding is increasing to these services.
In 2021, the funding amounted to a bit over 60 million.
Last year, the funding amounted to 145 million.
This year, the planned budget is 200 million euros for social care services.
This assistance helps mothers raising children with disabilities to stay in the labor market.
We admit that we have been late with those services and I hope that this will not happen in the future, but previously, we used to be late with those services because when a child with a disability is born in the family, we provide the services too late and then one of the family members have to drop out from the labor market.
Thank you for the possibility.
If I could just ask a quick question, which is, you've mentioned children around the age range of two and three.
What about children in other age ranges? Michella Monks, the representative of the Ministry of Social Security and Labor Bart Berke will answer the question.
The children who are in need of social services, irrespectively of whether this is a child with or without a disability, all children over six years of age can receive the daycare center services.
This is partially funded by the state and municipalities contribute to that.
We emphasize this opportunity a lot because people with disabilities often attend children's daycare center together with other community children.
And this increases the inclusion rather than having a separate daycare center for children with disabilities only.
But of course, we do have such specialized daycare centers for people with children with disabilities.
This is very relevant when the children have a severe disability.
Thank you.
And the question will be supplemented by Ramon from the Ministry of Social Security and Labor.
Thank you.
I would like to add in order for mothers to be able to manage their lives better, we provide the service of attending the family.
That is, as of the moment when the mother is expecting a obstetrician and a team attends the family up until the child is born and until the child becomes of two years of age.
They help the family during the first years of the child, Kristin Esa Panova will add something to the response.
Committee Chair members, thank you for the floor.
I will give you some additional information.
We are also strengthening the capacities of children's rights protection specialists to work with the parents who have children with disability and inform the parents about their rights.
This is provided with the plain language, easy language, or using visual means or the sign language or other means.
And we also get help of their family members or specialists that can provide the information in the adapted way.
And we also have the training that is the practical aspects of human rights specialists to evaluate the situation in families where there are members with psychosocial impairments.
18 minutes.
The first part of the close to one.
Thank you.
I'd like to move on to a question about Article 8 and disability hate speech and disability hate crimes were added to your criminal code in 2017.
Can you tell us about what measures have been put in place to ensure that they are working effectively? How is effectiveness evaluated? I'm going to add a question as well about accessibility, Article 9.
By the end of 2025, only 4% of key public buildings were accessible against a national target that was 40%.
I'm wondering what measures are being put in place to ensure that accessibility standards will be developed, that there are some indicators of success, and that you'll ensure that these standards are not only adequately funded, but that there's some monitoring mechanism that includes persons with disabilities.
If you can speak a little bit about that.
After that, if you could speak briefly to those, that would be wonderful.
After that, I have a couple of questions about data collection.
Thank you.
Now, thank you for the questions.
Now, regarding about hate crimes, what measures have been taken to prevent this hate Practice, Harold Eta Bullis from the Ministry of Interior will reply.
Chair Committee members, thank you for the floor.
On behalf of the Lithuanian delegation, I would like to give you the information about the question.
As of 2020, Lithuania has taken many steps to increase the response towards hate speech and hate crimes.
One of the measures was the cooperation with the society organization, various NGOs and we have compiled an interinstitutional working group which holds meetings two to four times a year and a drafts the report on the mentioned issues.
We also have drafted the methodological recommendations for the authorities fighting those crimes, and we are organizing qualification upgrading training.
We also have the new position which observes the hate crimes on the Internet.
Of course, The Journalist ethics Inspectors authority also observes the public media about hate crimes in various articles and 30 decisions were adopted last year.
In seven cases, the law was violated in relation to hate speech.
In this case, it was against the people with disability.
Over 70 hate crimes have been registered.
In the context of the criminal code, in relation to hate speech against on all grounds and against out of them, one case was related to disability.
Of course, this does not reflect the realistic situation and a The hate speech phenomenon has not been analyzed to the full extent.
That's why we will be conducting a study on hate crimes and hate speech in relation to people with disability.
Thank you.
The question about accessibility indicators of public buildings and 4% while the national target is 40%.
The question was, how do we ensure not only funding, but also the monitoring mechanism involving people with disabilities and what are the plans in this case? The question will be answered by the Ministry of Environment, Renata Pa.
Germina Ger.
Chair, Committee members, thank you for the floor.
On behalf of the Lithuanian delegation, I will give you the floor.
It will give the response.
According to the legal framework in Lithuania, the main requirements of accessibility have been regulated by the law on construction and they are valid when planning the new buildings in case of renovation or upgrading of the buildings and in case of reconstruction or renovation or modernization or repairs, the recent provisions of this regulation are applied for the parts of the building that are being renovated or reconstructed, et cetera.
In order to keep the already applied measures in the building, there were orders adopted that supplemented the legal regulation of this requirement and the monitoring is a done by the municipal administrations.
In case of the existing building, the accessibility is a continuous process because part of the public infrastructure was constructed at the moment when the existing requirements were not applicable.
According to the law on people with disability, the users of the buildings are responsible for adapting the buildings to people with disabilities.
That's why all the funding possibilities have to be taken into account and the condition of the building have to be taken into account to adapt the building, for instance, to install tactile indicators or lifts or so and so on.
We have created the information system stasis and for monitoring the building accessibility and control of the building.
At the moment, the percentage of the highest standard accessibility building is 4.8% and the partial adaptability is 42.1% of buildings and The status system carries out the evaluation of area according to various categories.
Thank you for your response.
One thing that I note in your response is that there doesn't seem to be well designed process for incorporating the viewpoints of persons with disabilities.
That might be something to consider a little bit more.
But I'd like to move on to data collection and statistics.
Part of the main purpose of your statute on the protection of rights of persons with disabilities is to ensure that the individual assistance needs of persons with disabilities are met.
In order to do this, it's really important to have adequate data and information on those needs.
We've heard concerns that municipalities lack comprehensive data on what the needs are.
Individual support needs.
Could you please tell me or please clarify what steps are being taken to ensure that there's adequate information? I'd like to know as well more broadly, whether your methods of collecting data draw on the Washington Group set of short questions and how, if at all, organizations of persons with disabilities are brought into the process.
One would imagine that they would be data contributors and validators.
Is that the case and how does it work? Let me give you my final question as well just so we can round this out.
My final question deals with national implementation and monitoring Article 33.
In 2019, sorry.
Sorry, we've noted generally that there has in practice, been a lack of resources centered or sent to the commission that does monitoring of persons with disabilities and their rights as part of the National Human Rights Institute, and I'm wondering how that will be rectified.
Um, if funding has been set aside, to ensure that the body can act independently, if resources, including technical resources have been set aside as well, and whether this is for a multi year basis, et cetera, a bit more on how you ensure that the office remains standing and remains independent.
Maybe I'll add one more thing to ensure that there is security of tenure so that those who are in the commission are there for fixed terms.
Thank you very much.
As Gutusla Klaus, thank you for your questions.
The question about steps in order to ensure proper information about methods and steps and whether it's based on Washington and Morocco documents.
This question will be answered by the representative of the Social Protection and Labor Ministry, Diva Zasyno.
Thank you for the floor.
I will give information about the collection of statistics.
Here, I'm very happy about Lithuania's extensive progress because together with the state data Agency, we started collecting a lot of data from administrative sources and we have data in various sections, also about people with disabilities based on their place of residence, age, gender type, and severity of their disability and other aspects.
Since 2024, The state data agency started developing a municipal project data lab.
It's a project for municipalities and more than 400 municipality staff have joined this project.
Here we accumulate information on persons with disabilities based on their age, functional, obstacles, coordinates of the buildings of residence, municipality, and about what needs they could have in cases of emergency situations.
This information is available to all municipalities and they really use this information.
Concerning the Washington Group question inclusion, they state data agency, integrated the short questions of the Washington group and they can collect internationally comparable data, analyze them based on gender, age, education, employment status, et cetera A lot of additional data are published in the scoreboards prepared by the Social Protection Ministry.
Also statistical data is also published by the agency for the Protection of People with Disabilities, including the coordinating of health plans, et cetera.
Thank you.
Question about financing in order to make sure that the Human Rights Protection Institute functions properly so that it remains independent and is able to function properly.
This autumn, we are going to expand the functions of the Equal Opportunities ombudsperson and we ensure ever growing financing.
Each year it's going to be increased.
And in this office as well as in the Institute for Human Rights, we're going to have more jobs in order to be able to better analyze complaints about the discrimination on the grounds of disability.
This question is going to be answered by the Representative of Social Protection and Labor Da Zabarowsk.
Thank you for the floor.
Very specifically, let me speak about the Commission for the People with Disabilities.
Since 2022, when 808,785 euros were allocated.
In 2026, about 28,000 is allocated and we do hope that in the future this financing will be increased.
Thank you.
A to my questions.
That is the end of my questions and I will now turn it back to the chair.
Thank you so much.
I would like to thank the member, miss Labren for question and comments and the distinguished delegations of Lithuania for the response and explanation provided the first part of the cluster one.
Now, we will take a 15 minutes break.
We should convince the P 45 to continue with the second round of the question concerning cluster one.
Thank you so much.
I This is colleagues and members of the delegation.
We now rejo the fifth meeting.
We will continue the second round of the back to back question and answer regarding closed one.
This segment will last for 30 minutes and will conclude at 5:15 P.M.
Now, I open the floor to the committee expert for additional and follow up questions regarding closed one.
Colleagues wishing to take the floor, please raise your name plug.
Miss Sbronkv, you have the floor.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
And I'd like to continue with some questions relating to just a few of the articles that we were just discussing.
So I My first question deals with Articles one to four again.
I'm wondering about something called accreditation based funding.
My question deals more specifically with how organizations of persons with disabilities are able to participate more broadly, participate in the design and co design of laws, but also able to participate in consultations generally.
We've heard that since 2023, there's been a shift to this accreditation based funding.
Um, and that, by contrast, it increasingly restricts funded organizations to just doing service delivery so that in many cases, they are not adequately resourced to do disability rights advocacy.
So I was wondering if you could comment a bit on that and whether or not there is an impact on the ability of organizations of persons with disabilities to participate.
I have another question as well.
Sorry, just give me 1 second.
I have a question as well that deals with women with disabilities.
It stems from our report and concluding observations in 2016.
Our committee recommended at that time that Lithuania include an explicit focus on the prevention and eradication of discrimination against women and girls with disabilities, including multiple and intersectional discrimination.
This is a quote, as well as measures for their development, advancement, and empowerment to foster their participation in public life.
The committee also recommended that Lithuania include measures to eradicate discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
These changes were to have been incorporated into the action plan that was then in place for 2015 to 2021.
I'm wondering if this actually had ever been accomplished? Was this done? If not, are there steps now being taken to incorporate this focus on preventing discrimination against women in your action plans, in your policies? Thank you.
Andrés Pettus Klaus, thank you.
The question about what is accredited based financing and how organizations working with persons with disabilities could participate broader in co legislating and whether there's been a shift in terms of this financing and how these organizations can participate in advocacy.
These questions will be answered by miss Chaplikin from the Agency of People with Disabilities.
In national umbrella, organizations for people with disabilities are supported through three ways.
Since 2016 until 2026, 26 organizations are financed.
They work in the areas of consultation, education, et cetera and in terms of action plan for ensuring the level of participation of persons with disability, every year, more than 1.7 million euros is allocated for these organizations.
Through the measures implemented by the Ministry of Social Protection and Labor, organizations in the area of disability also are financed.
They can get support for strengthening their programs of institution strengthening.
For example, in 2025, more than 2100000 euros were allocated for that.
Also in Lithuania, we have NGOs The NGO fund through the tenders of this fund, NGOs in the area of disability can also obtain financing for their institutional strengthening.
Also, I'd like to add that in 2025, 12 organizations received financing totaling 443,000 euros.
In 2026, nine organizations received financing.
Those were national organizations, they received financing.
Amounting to 343,000 euros, namely to strengthen their institutional structure.
And it's not only about services, it's also about the institutional strength of the organization and also advocacy in the area of persons with disability.
NGOs active at the municipal level usually get financing from municipalities for service provision or other activities, but not for institutional strengthening.
We do believe that we could encourage municipalities also to consider the possibilities to support these organizations, namely in terms of institutional strengthening.
We discuss these topics at the boards for people with disabilities at the municipal level.
They include also municipal board members, among others, and these questions could be further elaborated there and municipalities could finance organizations not only in terms of service provisions, but also in terms of their institutional strength.
Thank you, concerning the accreditation services.
Social Protection and Labor Ministry, Representative Yola Tal will answer to this question.
Let me supplement this information.
Indeed, service accreditation origin is in the area of social services.
We were those who, for example, decided to accredit social services because this reduces administrative burden to municipalities who organized the provision of these services because in the opposite case, we could only buy these services from third parties by way of public procurement.
Now the administrative burden is reduced not only to NGOs, but to other service providers and we have thus solved the question raised by NGOs, which was that when there is a project financing, we have a gap between the beginning and the end of the project when people are left without any help and we had to ensure the continuity of these services.
Therefore, we decided that we have to provide the possibility to accredit Accredited services.
At first, the period was for three years, but we saw in practice that it was ungrounded, so we gave up this term of three years and now the accreditation is given for unlimited time.
We have certain requirements for the staff and if certain equipment or premises are needed, then there are requirements for that too.
But the accreditation is not meant to finance the organization.
The accreditation is meant to facilitate the financing of the services to the service beneficiaries.
We still have challenges with municipalities who organize social care services to persons with disability and other beneficiaries.
We want to achieve the relationship of partners.
Before the project relationship was the one of the one who asks and the one who receives and now we would like to see a different relationship, that of a partnership.
We, of course, have to agree on certain norms and qualification requirements, but on the other hand, a certain portion of NGOs who have provided certain services that were not qualified as social services did not have any quality requirements.
In Lithuania, quality requirements are based on the enabling and the improvement of the quality of life.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Now, about focusing on the fight against discrimination against women and measures fighting against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, whether these measures have been included and implemented and whether there have been steps to implement these measures.
Social Protection and Labor Ministry Representative Christina Sapanova.
Thank you.
I'll talk about our plans for the future.
One of the key measures is that currently We transpose the Equality Directive provisions into Lithuanian national law.
This is important.
Because these provisions are being transposed to our Lithuanian law on equal opportunities and it will be about a A linked to discrimination, and this will help us to protect people more effectively.
Also, the legal amendments are related to the fact that equal opportunities ombdsperson will be able to provide extensive consultations to all persons who address them and they will have possibilities to file complaints.
Also, they will be able to submit the complaint verbally.
Also, In the action plan of Equal Opportunities for 23 25, there was a goal to improve the situation of women and girls.
For this, we implemented a measure for enabling girls and women from the vulnerable groups and we had certain activities that would help enable them through projects organized by the agency for the Protection of rights of people with disabilities.
In the new action plan for equal opportunities for 26 28.
We have a goal to improve the situation of girls and women from vulnerable groups and we want to see this change spread further and here we have a goal to develop the enabling of women and girls from vulnerable society groups and we have measures to implement various activities for this purpose.
We also have a included in the tender for the support of organizations, the requirement for these activities for enabling women and girls.
We have action plan For equal opportunities, it has among its goals to reduce discrimination on the grounds stipulated in the law on equal opportunities, including the grounds of disability.
We have certain activities, for example, communication on social networks and public spaces, and also other activities that encourage the inclusion of persons with a disability.
Thank you.
That's all.
Thank you very much for your responses.
I'm not sure if my colleagues have questions.
Yes.
Miss Gerardo, you have the floor.
So thank you Chair.
I have a question relating to the Article 7.
It was mentioned in the opening speech earlier that in 2026, total of 49 children with disabilities live in eight type of family type of homes.
And also the two large scale traditional children care institution very close.
Regarding this statement, I have some questions.
Please provide information on data what proportion of all children with disabilities are live in currently community based or family based arrangement.
Also, regarding that, what proportion of them are now living in non family based settings.
Also, we also provide desegregate data on children in these two groups, including bisex, age, type of disability, and type of care arrangement.
Is there dedicated plan of action or data collection mechanism on others of children with disabilities? Is there any mechanism in place to secure the participation of children with disabilities in decision making? Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Mr.
Hirostamon, you have the floor.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
My question is in regard to Article 9.
Do you have any standards for access to information that are set in place? And if so, do they apply to all entities? I have another question in regards to information that is televised, whether it be formally on television or if it is a commercial on television.
Either way, it's still information.
However, I would like to know how they are both accessible.
Or websites, for example, if someone has any visual impairment, what standards are in place for them to access that information? Thank you very much.
Excellency, you have the floor.
P C.
Thank you for the floor and for the questions.
The question is about 20:24 49 people were living in the family based establishment.
The question is about the proportions on children with disabilities.
How many of them live in family homes and do we have a plan on data collection about children with disabilities and whether they can participate? In decision making.
Panel that will respond to this question.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide information.
In the area of the institutionalization, we have a good progress.
We now have only family based care or community based care.
We no longer have the large institutions.
The last one was closed in 2020, December 2024.
I will refer to the data that I have and they reflect the situation best.
When we take the data about the care of children with disability, there's a huge progress towards the family because they are either accommodated with the relative or the professional caregivers or they live in the family based homes and the share of such children is increasing from 42.2 in 2023 to 54.5.
1.5 in 2024 and almost 60% in 2026.
Respectively, the share of children in the institutional care that is family based homes, although we are still considering them that they are in institutional care, the share of children with disabilities has declined from 58% to 40% and we have the Reduction of the absolute figure of children in institutional care from 2015 children in 2024 to 152 children in 2026.
That is in two years.
The number of children in institutional care has dropped by 29%.
In 2023, 2026, the family based in family based care, that is children with disabilities in family based care has grown by 17.6%.
The family based home is the only institutionalized establishment that we have nowadays.
This is a very small institution, a community institution.
Now, you asked about the data collection about children with disabilities.
We see that Lithuania still has to progress a lot in order to have comprehensive data.
However, at the same time, I would like to mention that we take into account the conclusions on data collection of the United Nations Children's Rights Protection Committee and the governmental degree on the statistical data.
Of 2026.
What does it mean in practice? Previously, Lithuania used to have the overall figure of children with disabilities, but taking into consideration the recommendations of the United Nations Children's with Disabilities Committee, we integrate the recommendation into the various areas and one of the main changes is that the disability feature has been reflected in various children's rights protection areas.
For instance, at the moment, we have the obligation to collect the data about a children with disabilities that are being taken care of and about the various care forms, about such children in families, in daycare centers, about children with disabilities who may have been exposed to violence, about the municipalities, about the relationship of the violent person with the child.
And we want to see the number of children with disability as a part of the overall children's figure.
We have the scoreboards which are public, and these aspects are publicized.
Then we have another question, the televised information and the commercial television as well and how this information is accessible and what standards are applicable so that this information becomes accessible to everybody, including people with visual impairments.
A Chaplin will reply to this question.
Thank you for the question.
Speaking about the accessibility of information on the television.
We have the law on television and radio for Article 5, paragraph nine, which obliges to make accessible the television programs to people with visual and hearing impairments and the duration has to account for 50% of the overall monthly broadcasting period.
That is, those adapted programs have to account for at least 50% of the overall broadcasting time during the month.
And we have regulated that at all governmental levels.
It's obligatory to provide the information to the individual by a public authority if the person is requesting this information to be provided in the adapted form.
We have the recommendations approved on how those authorities have to provide this information.
And We have the approved procedure and the objective is to collect the data.
At the moment, very few people make use of this right when addressing the public authority.
That's why we encourage them to do this so that they use their rights more.
We also provide a lot of consultations because we have the consultations center and we provide the consultations to individuals and authorities that want to provide the information in the adapted way to individuals with visual hearing or physical impairments, and the consulting individuals are people with disabilities themselves in a mentioneded areas, including the plain language.
And these consultants have their own experience and they have the knowledge of the legislation, and they consult about the accessibility levels and standards.
The question will be supplemented by the Parliament representative IdeQne.
Thank you for the floor.
Hello, Committee Chair, members, delegation representatives.
I would like to supplement the question related to television.
Moy In 2026, we have enhanced the representation of people with disabilities in the management of the television and radio.
The law says that we have at least one individual out of 15 of board members who has to be an individual with a disability.
This is important to integrate the prospects of people with individuals into decision making and policy formation.
Will also note that the national broadcaster is expanding the scope of audio visual contents and their accessibility to people with visual and hearing impairments and that includes films.
Thank you for the floor.
Maria Camille, we have just for soon as receive the question.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I've got a question about your statement that there are no children in institutions and that they live in small homes.
This is what we call transstitutionalization.
What it means is that they're being transferred from one institution to another.
They're not being deinstitutionalized.
My Question is, are you aware of and do you apply our guidelines on deinstitutionalization, including in emergency situations? The committee published this guideline in 2022, and we clearly state our opposition to transinstitutionalization in that document.
My second question concerns the accessibility of information.
It seems that you focus above all on persons with sensory impairments.
Visual impairments or hearing impairments, but I'd like to know what happens with other types of disabilities persons with psychosocial disabilities or with intellectual disabilities? How do they get information? As Gautus Clausimus.
Thank you for the questions.
Now, the question about the UN deinstitutionalization guidelines, the Social Security and Labor Ministry representative will reply to the questions, the Panova, and the second question about psychosocial or intellect impairments, how these individuals receive information.
The manager of the authority of people with impairments, Chala will reply to that question.
Thank you.
You have mentioned one of the essentials deinstitutionalization aspects.
We are integrating it into the transition to the child friendly care.
Deinization is not the division of large institutions into small ones, but also that means changing the contents.
The guidelines that you have drafted have been presented to daycare centers and we have adapted our legislation.
For instance, we have children's care organization provisions on the proper organization of child's care.
We are also evaluating the work of the specialists working in family homes and we have the plans on increasing their competence to work in a different way than they used to work in large institutions.
Thank you.
I will supplement my colleague.
We were talking about deinstitutionalization and especially about children with disability.
We are now making a big effort to keep the child in their own family.
We are working with the families and mentioned the families social care, which is funded from the budget of the state because the priority is to help the family.
The families that have people with disabilities is quite stable.
In 2022, we had 913 families raising children with disabilities or where parents have a disability.
In 2025, we have a larger number of such families, 1017 families that have one or another disability.
The main objective is to help the family so that the child remains within their parents care.
Another important aspect is increasing the competence of our specialists.
As I have said, desization, meaning to transfer somebody from one authority to another has the danger of trans institutionalization.
That's why we organize specialized training for the experts working in authority so that the individual can realize their human rights and the right of choice.
Thank you.
Speaking about psychosocial impairments.
Sorry, the microphone has been cut off.
Thank you so much.
We have now concluded the second round of the back to back question and answering regarding C one.
Any remaining information that could not fully provided because of time constraint may be submitted to the committee in writing following the dialogue.
We will now proceed directly to the clause two.
We will now proceed to the first round of back to back questions and the answers regarding Clause two covering Article 10 to 20 of the convention.
This segment will last for 14 minutes.
Now, I give the plural task force team member, Mr.
Alfred DQisy responsibility for Clause two to begin the round of questions.
Mr.
Alfred DQuisy, you have the floor.
President.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'd like to welcome the delegation from Lithuania, led by the minister.
I'd like to get straight down to my questions on cluster two.
Let's move straight on to Article 11, which concerns risk situations and humanitarian emergencies.
The law on risks and Civil Protection, which was adopted on the 8th of December 2022, defined the risk management system and the priorities within the Sendai Framework for disaster risk reduction.
As part of the plan to develop civil protection from 2024, 2030, you've included persons with disabilities protection as a priority through adapting shelters, awareness raising campaigns, and practical preparedness measures.
That's all very positive, but according to the information that we've received, whilst you have a legal framework ensuring that there is accessible information and that there are emergency measures, There is not always systematic accessible information.
Shelters are not always adapted, and there's no clear instructions to public entities to support persons who cannot move autonomously.
This means to say that many persons with disabilities would be exposed to danger when there are disasters.
How are you going to ensure that there's going to be inclusive and accessible disaster management systems for all persons with disabilities, making sure that shelters are adapted and that you have easy read braille, and other accessible forms of communication being provided at all levels including municipalities.
What other measures are you going to take to ensure that persons with disabilities are properly consulted in preparing and implementing emergency response SIS two humanitarian disasters? Thank you.
Au Ga, thank you for your questions.
The questions are as follows.
In 2022, the Legal Act defines the risk management systems and the questions are legal basis is available, but the information not always systemically available, whether competent institutions can help those who cannot move autonomously, would help be provided to these people? How emergency situations in emergency situations, people with disabilities would be assisted, whether information is available in bride and other means, whether there are consultations with NGOs and NGOs who work with people with disabilities while preparing a response and preparedness plans.
This question will be answered by the representative of the Ministry of the Interior, Gerald Sasa Butts.
Thank you for the floor.
Yes, indeed, in Lithuania, while responding to the geopolitical context, COVID 19 and other crisis and emergency situations.
In 2022, the new version of the law on crisis management was adopted.
It regulated crisis management and response system and Certain provisions were adopted directed towards people with disabilities.
In 2023, 2024 and 2025, by laws were drafted, for example, about the evacuation, crisis management and civil preparedness descriptions, and we closely cooperate with municipalities and organizations representing people with disabilities and we try to listen into their interests.
As has been noted, a lot of relevant aspects in terms of protecting people with disabilities during emergency situations have been included in legal acts.
Currently, we are implementing and practically testing these legal acts and among things that we're doing at the state and municipal level are annual exercises for crisis management and civil protection in order to see how this works in practice and we include the organizations representing people with disabilities.
Also people with disabilities participate in these exercises and we see that a lot of legal provisions actually are working in practice, but of course, there are certain shortcomings and they are included in the reports after these exercises and we tried to implement the recommendations at the next stages.
Now, concerning the availability of information.
The main information sources for civil protection are the application 20 LT 72 and other sources, we have consulted organizations representing people with disabilities.
We have included them in developing these sources of information.
Now concerning the financing and the shelters, for example.
Today in Lithuania, we have many shelters, more than 6,000 shelters and out of them, 12% are adopted to people with disabilities, but these shelters are from the current infrastructure, from the old buildings and our long term plans foresee annual financing for new shelters and for adapting them to people with disabilities.
Thank you.
Thank you for those answers.
I think you were very clear in your answers.
But we may be worried because 12% isn't very much.
I don't know how many people in your region would not have accessible shelters.
What would they do? But you are planning to improve the situation.
Article 12, according to the law, Legal orders handed down before 2016, which removed legal capacity should have been reviewed within 12 years.
That means two years, that means to say before the 1st of January 2018.
We'd like to know what is the state of play concerning the implementation of that provision.
Have you got some comparative figures? How many cases have been dealt with and resolved? That's my first question, Article 12, but I have others.
Thank you.
Thank you.
12% now have access to shelters and the situation is not good, how you're going to improve it? This question will be responded by the representative of Ministry of the Interior.
Thank you.
Yes, indeed, only 12% is available and adapted to people with disabilities.
They are all marked on the maps and people with disabilities can see these maps in advance.
In the governmental program, we plan to finance the adaptation work for shelters at least until 2030 and municipalities every year invest in hundreds of shelters.
But these processes are not fast because it involves design and construction works, but indeed, this government and the civil protection system sees this as a great priority.
Let me add that at the municipal level, there is financing of 3 million euros For shelters at the municipal level for the installation of these shelters concerning legal capacity and what is being done and about the process, the representative of the Ministry of Justice will reply.
Thank you.
I will briefly present the changes awaiting us in order to ensure legal capacity.
In 2023, the Ministry of Justice engaged in public consultations with NGOs and stakeholders about the possible efficient measures in order to give up the Institute of full legal incapacity.
Currently, we have the package of draft laws of the amendments to civil code and others in order to ensure appropriate mechanisms and offer additional measures in order to implement this goal.
This package of amendments would foresee giving up of the legal incapacity Institute and would develop other alternative measures, for example, assistance in decision making, simple property management institute and the limited capacity and incapacity would be replaced by a model based on which care in a certain area would be established as Ultimarcio.
The amendments would also amend the model of the reviewing of the care cases and instead of the commission for the review of the cases of incapacity, we would have individualized model based on judicial control so that every person would be able to address the court concerning the review of incapacity and that they would be able to use state legal aid.
And thus we would change the current model of legal capacity and would also create efficient alternatives to restore legal capacity when care is no longer necessary, for example.
And in this model, legal incapacity would be only applied in very special exceptional cases.
This is a priority for the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Social Protection and labor, and uh We have suggested including this into the action plan of the 21st program of the government.
In this plan, we have foreseen that next year these projects will be adopted.
These drafts would be adopted.
Concerning the statistics, now we have 42 court proceedings, and in 17 legal capacity has been fully or partially restored and I Let me ask Kaag Chaplin from the Agency of the Protection of Rights of People with disabilities to supplement this answer.
In our agency, we have a specialist for the prevention of legal capacity limitations, and they do their best to restore the legal capacity of people or to prevent the situation of incapacity.
In total, we have initiated about 100 legal proceedings, and we have 20 success stories when people either got their legal capacity fully restored or a they reached partial capacity, but people are no longer considered fully incapable.
Of course, all of this is done within the limits of our project, but in the future, we intend to develop this service of the prevention of legal incapacity.
Also, we have foreseen establishing the position of a specialist who would help people to preserve their legal capacity or to restore it.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
With regard to the information that we've received, despite the reform proposals, the system for limiting legal capacity is not yet in line with the convention.
That means to say with our convention and that national laws still authorize people to be declared fully incapable or incapable in certain areas.
According to the same source of information, this year, the Ministry of Justice has proposed amendments to the Civil Code and related laws, but the reform will change the terminology above all, but will preserve the existing system.
What measure has been taken by the state party to abolish the discriminating restrictions on legal capacity rights? This is with a view to abolishing the system of legal capacity and replacing it with supported decision making.
I'd like to hear your answers to that question.
Thank you.
Aug Klaus, thank you for this question.
National laws still allow declaring people legally incapable and how we intend to abolish this system in Lithuania in the Balchuniaro Ministry of Justice will reply.
Thank you.
As I said before, the situation is as it is, but through these draft laws, we aim at implementing the 12th article 0F the convention better.
The projects, the draft laws that I mentioned are currently being still discussed.
We will discuss them and agree on them with the NGOs as well.
And we will aim at offering as many alternatives as possible to people who need various types of help while enforcing their rights and making decisions.
But the main goal for this package is to move from taking decisions on behalf of the person towards helping persons themselves to decide.
That's the key message.
Thank you.
Let me add that in the autumn session in the Parliament, the Ministry of the Social Protection and the Ministry of Justice have tabled the draft laws and yes, we want to abolish this system.
Thank you very much for these answers.
They're quite encouraging.
Let's move on to Article 13, access to justice.
According to information we've received When the OPM's guideline was being used for victims' rights being included in national law, then the amendments were on the Criminal procedural code, which did not include procedures specifically referencing disabilities or people with disabilities.
And according to that very same source, law enforcement agents play an active role in ensuring that victims understand the content, the letter of the law.
For example, by providing additional verbal explanations, the most vulnerable victims, namely, A person with a visual impairment, intellectual or psychosocial impairment, as well as children, do not receive that information in an accessible format or in a language easily understood by them.
Also, according to the same information, the procedure accommodations are not systematically made available, particularly for children with psychosocial, intellectual, or communication impairments, and its implementation often depends on the discretion of each one instead of being clear procedural guarantees that have been established.
Could you please provide information On measures used to regularly provide training to members of the judiciary, prosecutors, attorneys, judges, and other legal professionals on persons with disabilities and a human rights disability based model.
Also, could you provide information to assess the individual needs of persons with disabilities held in detention, to provide them with personalized care and ensure that they have access to information that they need in order to partake in the legal proceedings? And could you also provide information on legal accommodation made for persons with disabilities, providing detail about the number of interpreters in sign language made available, physical accessibility of the courts, as well as how easy it is to obtain official information in an accessible format? That would include braille and easily understood and read language.
In my very last question, any recent information you have on the text that follows the statement published on YouTube channel of a comedian who mocked people with Andrew Glasia.
We would like to have recent information on what happened with that case.
Thank you.
N Guts Glausmus, thank you for the questions.
Now, speaking about the amendments in the Criminal Procedure Code and specifically people with disabilities have not yet been mentioned, and it's important to ensure that people with disabilities and children understand how a the needs of people are satisfied and how needs of people who are imprisoned are satisfied.
Now in the Bjun from the Ministry of Justice will reply to the questions.
Now, speaking about the lack of specific provisions in the Criminal Procedure Code, the fact that the disability is not mentioned in itself doesn't mean that the EU Directive on the crime victims has not been transposed correctly to the national legislation.
It doesn't mean that.
Lithuania is taking all the measures and is committed to increasing the accessibility of information and support to the victims including people with disabilities and we really do our best to take the measures.
There was also a question about the accessibility in court proceedings.
Indeed, those individuals whose civil capacity has been limited according to the civil procedure, they are represented by a caregivers and people who are incapable are being represented by caretakers and It is suggested that a person that is assisting the person with disability should be approached and these individuals accompany people with disability and provide the assistance to them and allow them to communicate, help them adopt decisions, make decisions, and understand the proceedings underway.
These are the amendments that are planned in the administrative code and the constitutional law.
You were asking about the sign language interpreters.
We do not have a separate post a guest of the sign language interpreter in courts and those individuals that need sign language interpreters, we have the Sign Language Interpretation center which we address in case of such needs, and this is a free of charge service.
These interpreters provide the service either remotely or arrive physically to the court.
At the moment, there are 111 sign language interpreters, if I have the right statistics.
But the annual number is 105-115.
Now, regarding the training, We are doing our best as a state to make sure that the training takes place.
Lithuania strengthens the competencies of judges and social workers and civil servants, especially in relation to the right to legal capacity or assistance when making decisions or communicating with individuals with disabilities.
The training is organized on a yearly basis.
The National Courts Administration is constantly consulting with specific authorities on the topics that are relevant for the trainings and these topics are updated every year, both in the area of courts or the bar or the state lawyers constantly receive training.
Thank you.
You also had a question on The YouTube channel.
What was the solution to the situation when a comedian was mocking people with disabilities and how the situation was being solved.
At the moment, we are conducting a pretrial investigation and there's no decision made.
Regarding the training, I would like to ask the Ministry of Justice Representative Al police to supplement the reply.
Thank you on the part of the police and people who have been apprehended and if they have a disability, the information is provided to them taking into consideration the specific situation.
For instance, we provide the sign language interpreters or other needed assistance.
The training to individuals that are seeking to become police officers is done based on a specific program and the questions on people with disabilities rights are integrated in the training program.
We also have the confirmed training programs for existing police officers that upgrade their qualification on a yearly basis.
There is also a regular training for the various Lithuanian organizations, NGOs and so on, and all the detention centers are also adapted to people with disabilities.
Thank you very much on Article 14 on freedom.
I'm going to give the floor to my colleague, Mr.
Shaffer, who will be speaking on this, and then I will pick up on the remaining articles.
Thank you, Alfred.
I want to join my colleagues into welcoming the delegation and get right to my question on Article 14 that also goes on into 15.
I have several questions on it.
They all pertain to the process of establishing an additional protocol to the Oviedo Convention.
Now, if I am informed correctly, the Lithuanian Minister of Health proposes to follow with the O additional protocol process to the Ovia Convention.
We're all aware that this process is in stark contrast with what the CRPD convention requires and this committee has at several points over the last couple of years, made it very clear what the convention requires.
Now, is the position of the Ministry of Health of Lithuania, that is it the position that the current process should be continued? Thank you for the question.
The question is, what is the Ministry of Health position and whether the current process should continue? The question will be answered by Roma Andrés from the Ministry of Health.
Thank you.
I will note that at the moment we are drafting the changes to the law on mental health and care.
We are trying to strengthen the protection of rights and reduce the number of coercive measures and that includes the ultima ratio principle and that principle provides for the restriction of rights of such individuals.
In this area, the ministry has progressed quite a lot.
At the moment, inpatient mental health establishments apply the Quality Rights Initiative that covers the seven largest psychiatric authorities.
We are planning to expand the number of such authorities up to 16.
We conduct training to mental health specialists very actively.
I will note that the restrictions are applied only in critical situations.
The Ministry of Health observes the data.
And we see the declining number of such restrictions.
Thank you.
Thank you for the answer.
I take it as a yes.
So my follow up question is, I looked at the current revisions of the Mental Health Care Act.
They were open for public consultations last May.
When you look at the public consultation material, it lays out the reasons why one does something and then what is being done.
Among the reasons, the material frequently refer to the draft OVA protocol, even though it hasn't even been finalized or it has not been definitely decided whether or not by the committee of ministers, whether it's going forward.
It also refers to the COPD convention.
However, those references are either not followed up or they even are misleading as in one area, you have a reference to this convention, and then at the bottom saying, well, international human rights standards say this and this, clearly implying that the convention does that, which it does not.
It seems one gets the impression that references to the convention were done in a more or less perfunctory way.
And that the convention has not been seriously considered as a basis for the current revision of the Mental Health Care Act.
I take note of the fact that the aim is to improve the legal protection against coercive measures and involuntary deprivation of liberty.
But I think it is also fair to say that Lithuania is not in a position at the current moment to fully implement the requirements of Articles 14 and 15 of the Convention.
Is that a fair assessment? A P, thank you for the questions.
The questions are the amendments to the mentioned law were consulted about publicly in May and the materials say that the process is, as is mentioned in the Oviedo protocol, but this has not yet been decided upon whether it will be adopted.
Does that mean that at the moment you cannot implement the convention articles that had been mentioned and the Ministry of Health Representative Romendocheitin will reply to the question.
Thank you for the question.
At the moment, as I have said all the amendments to the mentioned law which are being drafted are not yet final.
The decision has not yet been made, and we are looking for the best ways on the implementation of the convention.
Thank you for this answer and I would like to follow up on this.
Now, taking the fact that the Ministry of Health in the committee of Ministers supports the further OVAO process and combined with the fact that it is the same minister who is in charge of the current revision of the Mental Health Care Act, These are the same, this is the same person.
It is highly unlikely that the current revision of the Mental Health Care Act will be in accordance will come out with a result that is in accordance with the convention.
That is, of course, projection, but would that be your assessment as well, or is there still a possibility that the current process of the revision of the Mental Health Care Act will change substantially in its course and get back to where the convention leads you to go.
Iklask, I will reply to this question.
We will do our best to comply with the CRPD Convention.
Lithuania is determined and is fully decided on this aspect.
Thank you very much and I give the mic back to my colleague, Alfred Quasi.
Okay.
Thank you very much, Marcus.
Now let's move on to Article 16, Protection from exploitation, violence and abuse.
According to information we've received, an entemological study on women with disabilities show that over 50% of people surveyed had been exposed to sexual violence at least once in their lifetime, and a 84 had undergone physical violence.
It's quite alarming to note that according to this information, 25% of participants in the study stated that they had undergone systematic physical harm, and a similar percentage of women asserted having undergone systematic sexual violence.
According to the same source, this etymological study on women with disabilities and a qualitative study on the experiences of women with disabilities that are victims of violence, which was led in 2023, these two studies side by side highlighted greater dependence of women with disabilities on the authors of the violence, which means that the process of even recognizing that there is violence more difficult, this means there's a flagrant lack of supporting services to address the needs of women with disabilities.
So could you please provide the committee with information On public programs aimed at protecting women and girls with disabilities from gender based violence and to make their shelters accessible and to provide women, namely young women with disabilities, the means to put an end to violent relationships, including the family setting.
Second question, information we've had on measures taken to protect persons with disabilities, in particular, women with disabilities, children with disabilities, and older persons with disabilities from exploitation, violence, and ill treatment, including all types of institutional domestic violence.
Then the third question, information on the protocols that have been set up for the quick reporting of acts of violence, especially in institutions.
The use of the necessary accommodations to gather testimony of the victims and then prosecutions against the perpetrators of violent acts and providing due reparation to persons with disabilities that have been victims of violence.
And lastly, what are the measures that have been taken by the State party in order to ratify the Istanbul Convention from the Council of Europe, which is of key importance for preventing gender based violence and for having more effective follow up in care when there is violence.
Thank you.
I chat.
Thank you for your questions.
The questions are as follows, how to ensure the protection of women and girls is ensured? What's the accessibility to shelters? What is done to terminate violent relationships and how adequate premises are insured for giving witness testimony and what repriions are paid to victims of violence.
These questions will be responded by the representative of Social Protection Ministry, Mr.
Panova.
As for reparations, the Ministry of Justice Representative will reply.
Thank you for giving me the floor.
We have many measures to fight sexual violence against women.
To sum up, in the recent years, the System of protection against violence, also domestic violence has been reinforced at various levels, beginning with legal regulation and ending with specific help to people at the place of their residence.
We have amended the law on the protection against domestic violence.
They came into force on the 1st of July 2023 and they have strengthened interinstitutional cooperation, also established the Institute of Protection Order against violence, also improved the quality of health standards and certain measures have been set up in order to improve the accessibility to services.
We will provide additional information in writing.
Now, the Ministry of Justice, very briefly about reparations and compensations.
We have a fund for victims of violence.
This fund is used for this.
I don't have specific statistics here at hand and we will provide this information in writing.
Thank you.
I will also reply about domestic violence and sexual violence.
Lithuania has clearly declared The data on domestic violence, this data is really alarming.
Figures are high.
We have the new law on domestic violence and violence against women.
We are implementing the EU Directive.
We have the urgent order, we have plans for the long term order in order to better protect women victims of violence.
We also have plans for sickness payments.
If there is a pret ongoing, women can go for sick leave for five calendar days and and this is to help them get out of violent relationships.
In all municipalities, we have domestic violence commissions.
In these commissions, we have representatives of organizations, for example, we also have special help centers providing a free of charge help, psychological, consultational, legal help.
These are specialized complex support centers throughout Lithuania and women when they are in these violent relationships, they can ask for specialists to work along with them in order to help them to get out of violent relationships.
Thank you so much.
We have now concluded the first round of back to back questions and answering the guardian close to two.
This concludes the first part of the committee's consideration of the combined the second and third in the of Lithuania.
I would like to thank the distinguished delegation of Lithuania headed by Vice Minister Mr.
Lia Grigalnne for its engagement and the information provided this afternoon.
I also thank the representative of the independent monitoring mechanism, the member of the task force, and all committee expert for their contributions.
We will continue with the second part of the dialogue with Litana at the next schedulers meeting.
Any information that could not be poly provided during today's dialogue may be submitted to the committee in writing through the Secretariat.
Thank you so much.
The 85th meeting is agenda.
Thank you so much.