By Alexandra Halsey-Storch
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

GENEVA, Switzerland – On October 11, the United Nation’s Council on Human Rights in Geneva reviewed and discussed the serious human rights problems that continue to pervade Lithuanian society, namely a “discriminatory policy with regard to ethnic and language minorities, manifestations of racism and anti-Semitism, a grave situation in the penitentiary system, human trade, the violation of the rights of children, women and handicapped, and others.

UN member states made a variety of suggestions to Lithuanian officials to improve the dire human rights conditions. Russia identified the particular “need to eradicate manifestations of racism, and neo-Nazism, to put an end to attempts to revise the outcome of World War II, to make heroes of fascist henchman and persecute veteran anti-fascists. It is correcting these violations that the Lithuanian authorities must, at least, deal with.”

In response, the head of the Lithuanian delegation at the United Nations, Justice Remigijus Simasius, declared that Lithuania will not abandon a policy of persecuting people who “committed crimes against the Lithuanian people during the occupation,” also commenting that, “some Russian institutions hold an odd stance that censuring the crimes against humanity committed by Stalinism automatically vindicates Nazi crimes.”

In mid-July, Lithuanian foreign minister issued a statement recognizing Russia’s role in defeating Hitler and the Nazi regime iterating that, “we have big appreciation for the Russian nation’s historic contribution and dedication to the defeat of the dragon of Nazism together with members of the then coalition.” He went on to say that, “I believe evaluation of Stalinism is currently a difficult task in Russia because it is viewed together with the Russian nation’s historic role in World War II. I believe that Russia has intellectual potential and the capacity of separating the two phenomena. The start may be difficult but we hope that is part of a longer path.”

It appears that the heart of the disagreement between Russia and Lithuania stems from the fact that the two countries cannot agree on the role that the Stalinist regime played during World War II and the Lithuania occupation.

Nevertheless, relations between Russia and Lithuania run deep and have been tumultuous from the beginning. Once a part of Russia, Lithuania initially achieved independence in 1917 during the Bolshevik Revolution.  In 1939, however, the Soviet Military invaded and took Lithuania over as a result of the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact made between Russian Dictator Josef Stalin and German Dictator Adolf Hitler.  Once occupied, an estimated 200,000 Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians were arrested, deported and imprisoned in labor camps in Siberia and the Northern Soviet Union. Lithuanians say the agreement resulted in the “”planned genocide of the people” and have pointed toward the illegal nature of the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact. Lithuania regained independence in 1991.

Though no mention of reform was made regarding the other human rights abuses occurring in Lithuania the head of the Lithuanian delegation asserted that Lithuania “would continue seeking due assessment of totalitarian regimes in Europe.”

For more information, please visit:

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation – Comments by Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Ombudsman for Human Rights – 12 October 2011

United States Department of State – Background Note: Lithuania – 11 March 2011