For the first time in Lithuanian history, violence against women has been discussed in the Parliament of Lithuania and condemned by all political parties.
In addition, Lithuanian NGOs started their activities on the 16 Days of Activism in Lithuania.

On November 24, 2006, the meeting on the issues of violence against women took place in the Seimas (Parliament) of Lithuania for the first time in history of Lithuania. The meeting has been organized in respond to the call of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

All factions of the political parties of Seimas participated in this event and expressed their firm position in condemning VAW and calling for effective mechanisms to stop the existing crime. The meeting started with the speech of the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden, who summarised the experiences of Swedish society to combat VAW. Though VAW in Sweden is not resolved completed, the effective legislation and innovative educational tools has helped reduce cases of violence against women and children.

The parliamentarians of the Seimas has adopted the Resolution and declared that VAW should be moved from the private sphere towards the public concern. Consequently, the parliamentarians entitled themselves to draft the legal acts that would clearly identify concepts of physical, psychological, sexual and economic violence in private sphere and draw the responsibility for committing these acts. Additionally, effective programs for the perpetrators’ rehabilitation and reintegration into family life environment should be drafted and implemented. During the meeting, the item in the Resolution has been adopted. It was strongly recommended for each political party to involve effective measures in solving the problems of VAW in their political programs.

All parliamentarians that were present at the meeting voted for adoption of the Resolution.

In addition, Lithuanian NGOs also started their activities on 16 Days of activism against VAW. The director of Woman’s Activities Center of Marijampole district informed the Center of Equality Advancement that the campaign started by calling upon school students and teachers to express their opinion about domestic violence against women and later organizing the final gathering with a clear message of condemnation of domestic violence.  (Compiled from the information letter of Ms. Adolfina Blauzdziuniene)

Anyksciai Community center organizes the round table discussions on violence against women and trafficking during the week from December 1 to December 10. They invite local municipal administration, police and local NGOs to discuss the problems of support of the victims of domestic violence and legal, social and psychological obstacles for the victims of trafficking.