The Rights of women
ENAfter the regain of the independence, the social life in Lithuania has changed a lot – it has been essentially reformed and it is even possible to say that as an outcome of this, the new regulatory base has been formed, the economic conditions changed – the free market relations settled and gained the new typical features, public activity of the residents of Lithuania has also changed – many public organizations have been formed, some of them have become steadily acting, acknowledged by the state and international institutions as well as organizations. In this social context, the social situation of a woman has been also actively changing by emphasizing the necessity to ensure the equal possibilities for men and women. First of all, it has been required to form the regulatory base that would provide the possibilities not only to avoid the direct discrimination but also the indirect one that would not only aim at elimination of violence against women but also would evaluate the specific problems of women. At the moment there is an essentially new, by its quality, regulatory base formed that virtually strives to meet the needs of safeguarding of the equal opportunities of men and women. The new codes that came into force in 2003 aim not only at the consolidation of equality principle as well as to safeguard the equal opportunities of persons, provide not only the general legal provisions but also aim at the disclose in series the content of them. For example, the Labor Code of the Republic of Lithuania that came into force on 1 January 2003 not only provides the general gender equality but also prohibits the discrimination as well as consolidates the special provisions amending the content of common principles such as the consolidated requirement by Part 3 Article 188 of the Labor Code of the Republic of Lithuania to apply the same criteria for men and women when calculating the work payment.The Criminal Code provides the criminal liability for the discrimination based on gender, sexual harassment, also consolidates many norms providing the preconditions for the protection of women from all forms of violence in everyday life. The Criminal Procedure Code provides the new measures of suppression aiming at the protection of victims from the criminal influence by the violator – the obligation of the suspect to live separately from the victim in case it is reasonably thought that the suspected, living together with the victim would try unlawfully influence the victim or would commit new criminal acts against the victim or the person living together with her. The huge special regulatory base has been created: the Law on Equal Opportunities as well as amendments of other legal acts for the application of that law, the continued further accession to different international legal acts in the field of the protection of the rights of women: the Protocol on the Prevention, Abortion and Punishment for Trafficking in Human Beings, especially Women and Children amending the United Nations Convention against the International Organised Crime, Convention 156 Concerning Equal Opportunities and Equal Treatment for Men and Women Workers: Workers with Family Responsibilities of the International Labor Organization as of 1981, the Facultative Protocol of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women that Lithuania signed in 2000 the ratification of which will provide the wider possibilities for the citizens of Lithuania facing the discrimination based on gender and protect ones rights.Many legal acts have been adopted empowering the state to take active steps in solving the problems of women by implementing the following programmes: the Programme of Control and Prevention of Trafficking in Human Beings and Prostitution of 2002–2004, the State Programme on Equal Opportunities of Men and Women of 2003–2004, the Draft Plan on the Strategy and Measures for the Reduction of Violence in the Family for 2005–2007 as well as the newly adopted Programme of the Prevention and Control of Trafficking in Human Beings for 2005–2008. The attention should be paid to the fact that apart from the regulatory base the institutional system has been created: the actively functioning Service of Equal Opportunities of Men and Women has been established which is presently called Office of Equal Opportunities Ombudsman, a separate division has been formed at the Ministry of Social Protection and Labour one of the main objectives of which is the security of equal opportunities of men and women (Labor Market and Equal Opportunities Division), the Equal Opportunities Development Center has been established by the latter Ministry. Thus, on a state level quite a big attention is being paid to the security of the equal opportunities of men and women, however, the question is how it has helped to change the social situation of a woman in Lithuania [p. 241-242].
