Republic of Lithuania materials of international law 2023

EN1. The Republic of Lithuania Materials on International Law 2023 (RLMIL 2023) have been drafted and classified pursuant to Recommendation (97)11 of 12 June 1997 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, as applied by the British Yearbook of International Law from the year 1997, with certain minor amendments. 2. For ease of reading, a number of abbreviations are used in the RLMIL 2023, namely ECHR – Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, 1950; ECtHR – European Court of Human Rights; Seimas – Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania; Government – Government of the Republic of Lithuania. Unless explicitly provided for otherwise, references to cases or decisions in the RLMIL2022 are references to the acts of national courts and institutions. The case law of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania is available in English on its website https://www.lrkt.lt/en/. The case law of the European Court of Human Rights is available through the website https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng. Information on treaties involving Lithuania are available at the following website: https://www.urm.lt/uzsienio-politika/tarptautines-sutartys/563. Universal and regional international instruments mentioned in the RLMIL2023 are not referenced to their source, as these may be easily accessed from various pages on the internet. Due to its limited scope, the RLMIL2023 does not reproduce entire texts and, therefore, certain information has been omitted and marked as […].3. The RLMIL2023 mostly concerns opinions from Lithuanian institutions and officials. If not expressly stated otherwise, the institutions and officials mentioned in the RLMIL2023 are those from Lithuania. Often, different officials expressed views on the same issues. In order to avoid undue repetition, the editor has selected materials from the highest possible level. Some materials have been quoted at length due to their importance or because they provide a useful insight into the relevant aspects of Lithuanian history, politics or geopolitical concerns, etc. 3434. There were several recurring topics in the speeches and statement made by officials, for example, the continuous condemnation of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, calls for the establishment of a special tribunal against Russia’s aggression, the inclusion of Belarus in the condemnation of Russia, encouragement for the continuation of support for Ukraine, the deterioration of diplomatic relations with the Russian Federation and the remaining tensions with the Peoples’ Republic of China. 5. In 2023, the ECtHR communicated 22 cases to the Lithuanian Government, handed down 13 judgements on the merits against Lithuania, including one case from the Grand Chamber and found violations in 5 cases. The violations concerned Articles 5 § 1, 8, 10 and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 of the Convention. One application was declared inadmissible and four applications were struck out of the list.