The Right to a fair trial
ENIn a democratic state, a person‘s right to a fair trial is understood as a right to a combination and entirety of all constitutional guaranties of a person‘s interests. This entirety consists of the right to a public, prompt (within a reasonable period of time), impartial, equal in rights and transparent case investigation and/or a trial by an independent tribunal established by law. This right is also called the right to a fair hearing. It is a first- generation civil right, which is also recognised in the international documents regulating the protection of human rights. When assessing the 1992 Petition Wolf v. Panama, the Human Rights Committee at the United Nations pointed out that the concept of fair trial with regard to Article 14, Part 1 of the International Convent of Civil and Political Rights should be interpreted as establishing a number of requirements, such as, equality of arms and respect for the principle of adversary proceedings. In the long run, social processes taking place in every democratic state and society change the interests and needs of the people participating in them. As a social quality of relations changes, not only the attitude of society and its separate members to these relations, but also the activities of the institutions that are solving the disputes arising out of these relations alter. The carried out survey attests to this point. According to the data of a sociological research that was carried out in 2004, a person‘s right to a fair trial is not adequately enforced. 42.2 % of the population think that their right to a fair trial is violated to the largest extent. 42.9 % of the population think that this right is violated by the prosecutor’s offices, whereas 38.3 % thereof think that this right is also infringed by the officials of pre-trial investigation institutions.However, the largest number, i. e. even 52 % of the population, criticise the courts for the violation of the human rights to the greatest extent. And, it seems, there is a reason for that. The courts are the institutions that have the last word when solving disputes and protecting a person‘s interests from being violated. Besides, court decisions are always public, and thus they are accessible and known to the society, which affects the degree of trust in courts. Other public opinion surveys also confirm the above mentioned. According to the data of a research that was carried out by the Institute for Social Research (March 2004), only 24 % trust the courts, whereas a larger part of the population, i. e. 33 %, distrust activities of the judiciary. According to the people that participated in the research, the main reasons for distrust are almost the same as in 2003, namely, unobjective conduct of the courts, unfair punishment, delay of cases and other. The respondents mostly criticised partiality of the courts. Finally, according to the sources of another research, in 2004, the activities of the courts, when compared to other law enforcement as well as law and order authorities, are evaluated as the most unsatisfactory. As much as 37 % of the population highlighted that the activities of the courts are the least controlled among all law enforcement institutions.When the opinion of the respondents as to their trust in courts in comparison to other state management and public institutions, such as the President‘s Office, the Parliament, the Government, non-governmental organisations and other, was evaluated, it turned out that the activities of the courts in ensuring human rights in Lithuania are considered to be rather poor: 19 % positive and 36 % negative responses; nevertheless, it is important to mention that since 2002 the evaluation has significantly improved (the numbers were 10 % and 52 % respectively). It should be highlighted that, if compared with previous years, in 2004 the assessment of the right to a fair trial results improved. If three years ago 51 % of the population were negative in their assessment, then in 2004 the number of such respondents was lower – 40 %. Different from the results of the 2001 research, when this problem was more often mentioned by men than by women, the responses to the question in the 2004 research are rather similar across all socio-demographic groups. Besides, the trust in courts, as an institution, has increased in this period of time. In November 2001 the courts were trusted by 17 % of the population, whereas three years later – by 23 % [p. 39-40].
