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At a regular session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on 29 February, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius called attention to human rights in various regions of the world, the safety of journalists and the 50th anniversary of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

When speaking about the human rights situation in Ukraine, the Minister noted cases of serious human rights abuses in separatist-controlled parts of eastern Ukraine. He called on the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine to continue to work to ensure that the culprits were brought to justice. Linkevičius also called on Russia to grant observers sent by international human rights organizations access to the territory of Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia. The observers can monitor the violations of human rights that have been caused by lack of protection of minorities, especially of Crimean Tatars.

Linkevičius expressed concerns about the human rights situation and the humanitarian crisis in Syria and noted that human rights violations in the country were not only carried out by terrorist groups, but also by Syria’s government. Lithuania’s Foreign Minister expressed the hope that progress in the negotiations would be achieved and a political solution for the crisis in Syria would be found.

Linkevičius also reminded that in the last two months 8 journalists had been killed and 154 imprisoned. He pointed out that nowadays wars were fought not only with weapons, but also with wilful misinformation, propaganda and media restrictions, so it was particularly important to ensure the legal protection of journalists and that investigations and trials relating to crimes against journalists were undertaken.

“As a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, last May Lithuania raised the issue of the safety of journalists and of the renewal of the 2006 UN resolution to reflect today’s reality. Lithuania continues to defend media freedom and the safety of journalists, and will seek a safe and enabling environment for civil society work,” said Linkevičius.

On the same day, Linkevičius gave a speech in a public discussion on the new security challenges for the regional stability in Europe. The public discussion was organised by the Geneva Centre for Security Policy and led by the Ambassador Christian Dussey, Director of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.

Lithuania’s Foreign Minister stressed the new threats facing Europe, such as hybrid warfare, energy security and cyber security breaches, and an appropriate response from the international community. The participants of the event discussed military conflicts in Ukraine and Georgia, Russia’s propaganda, the human rights situation in Belarus as well as other challenges that required a co-ordinated European response in order to ensure regional security.