The Right to participate in the country governance and otherwise take part in the conduct of public affairs
ENIn a course of late three years there were a few changes in Lithuania regarding the ensurance of the rights of the citizens to participate in the country governance and otherwise take part in the conduct of public affairs. The main legal acts in the majority of fields have not changed. Although outwardly seems that there have been no essential changes also in the implementation practice, we still can be glad that the attitude of people to the implementation of these rights has significantly improved (most probably it has been predetermined by the overdue reaction to the earlier changes and the increase of the activity of the citizens). In November 2004 to the question “What do you think how much attention is paid in Lithuania to the right to take part in the state governance?” 17 % of the respondents specified much attention paid and 34 % specified little attention paid. Referring to the fact that according to the data of May 2002 the mentioned answers have respectively formed 11 % and 50 %, the progress is evident. On the other hand, the concern is caused by the fact that the citizens are very little aware of the protection mechanisms of the right to take part in the country governance. After the summing up of the answers to the question “Do you know where to address due to the violated rights in these fields?” it has appeared that among the sixteen rights this takes the second place according to the number of those who do not know where to address regarding its violations (according to the survey carried in November 2004 they have formed 59 % of all the respondents) and just fourteenth place according to the number of those who know where to address (they have formed 19 % of all the respondents). The latter data clearly show that Lithuanian citizens especially lack the information on the protection measures of this pointed right.Of course, it is important to have in mind that in certain cases such information simply does not exist as there are no legal protection measures (for example, the municipality council violates the right of the inhabitants to elect the community representatives of the residential area as it does not provide the needed procedure for the implementation of this right. However, there are no adequate legal instruments that would force the adoption of the respective legal act). By the way, it is worth of noticing, that in the review of 2005 of “Freedom House” the situation of the political rights in Lithuania has been evaluated undermost in a course of late ten years (the evaluation until now has been stable). The review does not contain the clear reasoning of this evaluation. However, based on its content it is possible to presume that this could have been predetermined by the public allegations that the carried seizures at the seats of the four political parties carried by the officials of the Special Investigation Service during the Presidential elections campaign have been politically reasoned. Other facts mentioned in the review (the impeachment of the suspended President Rolandas Paksas as well as facts having determined it; the suit of the prosecutor’s office to allow the prosecution of the three members of the Seimas related to the “Rubicon” case and its rejection as well as resignation of the members of the Seimas) could hardly be the serious reason for such decision. It should be noted that there are no legally valuable evidence that could prove the suspicion that during the Presidential elections campaign the officials of the Special Investigation Service tried to influence the political processes. On the other hand, in the discussed case even the suspicions themselves diminish the confidence in the political system.Thus, the change of the index reflecting the situation of political freedoms is understandable (though not necessarily true). The Constitution provides that “the citizens shall have the right to take part in the state governance both directly and through democratically elected representatives”, also “the right to seek employment, on general terms of equality, in the civil service of the Republic of Lithuania”. In practice the rights of this category are also consolidated in the international legal acts (for example, Article 217 of the Universal Human Rights Declaration and Article 258 of the International Covenent of the Civil and Political Rights that are valid in the Republic of Lithuania). By the way, the concept “the right to the state governance” used in Article 25 of the International Covenant of the Civil and Political Rights has been changed into the wider category “the right to take part in the conduct of public affairs” [p. 16-17].
