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Media Release TJA - News Amnesty - TAZ: Homosexualtiät tabu

Media release by Tolerant Youth Association (Lithuania), June 16th 2009:

Tolerant Youth Association

Vilnius, 16/06/2009. Today the Lithuanian Parliament has passed a legislation that bans any positive information, or “propaganda” as they call it, about homosexuals. The law is called “Law on the Protection of Minors against the Detrimental Effect of Public Information” and Article 4 includes “propaganda of homosexuality” as one of the “Detrimental Effectors”.

67 out of 74 parliamentarians who checked-in for the voting voted in favour of the Law that will now prohibit any discussions regarding homosexuals at schools or in media that is accessible to children or teenagers. The passed amendment puts homosexuals into the same category with display of dead or cruelly mutilated body, information that causes fear or horror or encourages suicide. Ridiculously, the Law may even prohibit popular books, such as Brothers Grimm and other fairy tales that contain cruel scenes. Unproven scientific facts, such as the String Theory or the Big Bang are not to be discussed at schools either until verified by scientists.

Even more, Petras Grazulis, a member of the Lithuanian Parliament, was trying not only to include homosexuals as a “Detrimental Effector” for the development of minors but also to remove the point where it says that information that taunts on the basis of sexual orientation has negative impact on minors. If this amendment was accepted, any information that is taunting, mocking and providing any negative information on homosexuals would not be considered as against the law while positive information about homosexuals, or 'propaganda' as the authors of the legislation call it, would be banned.

The latter Law is the peak of recent xenophobic outbursts in Lithuania. The last hope for the Lithuanian gays and lesbians is the President’s veto. Anyone willing to stand up for the fundamental Human Rights in Lithuania, please send your letters to the Personal Assistant of the President of Lithuania ( Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist gegen Spambots geschützt! Sie müssen JavaScript aktivieren, damit Sie sie sehen können. ).

Tolerant Youth Association is one of the biggest Youth NGOs fighting for Human Rights in Lithuania.

For more information regarding the case please contact:
Tolerant Youth Association, Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist gegen Spambots geschützt! Sie müssen JavaScript aktivieren, damit Sie sie sehen können.

Tolerant Youth Association

Vilnius, 22/06/2009: Yes to Common Sense!
On Friday, June 26, at midday, a peaceful meeting “Yes to Common Sense!” will be held near the Presidential Palace in Lithuania. The aim of this non-hostile activity is to urge the President of Lithuanian Valdas Adamkus to take note of the violation of human rights in Lithuania and to veto the Law on the Protection of Minors against the Detrimental Effect of Public Information, which has been adopted by the Parliament of Lithuania.

The initiators of this event are a group of young people as well as various NGOs that support them and other organizations. They will express their disapproval of the law that not only endangers the freedoms of self-expression and opinion as well as the liberty of the press, but is also biased and written in ambiguous language, which cannot be tolerated in legal documents.

The participants of the event will express their protest against the “law of censorship”, which, because of its ambiguous wording, could prohibit, such things as national fairytales (as generating terror), roller-skating (as a conscious destruction of property), eating hamburgers in public places (as encouraging unhealthy dietary habits) or even one of the most important literary texts of the Lithuanian literature “Metai” by Kristijonas Donelaitis (as a text that is full of indecent expressions).

The event will last until 1 pm. At the end the participants will deliver the address to the President or his representative.

The initiators of this event work closely together with various human rights organizations in Lithuania and other youth and international organizations, which have expressed their resentment toward the scandalous “censorship law”. These include the Nobel Prize winner Amnesty international, the Council of Europe, IGLYO, ILGA, and numerous groups of the European Parliament. In the peaceful meeting near the Presidential Palace the residents of Lithuania will show that they are concerned about the future of the free, tolerant and democratic Lithuania where unethical juridical nihilism will not be tolerated.

For more information contact:
Artūras Rudomanskis, +370 683 04748, Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist gegen Spambots geschützt! Sie müssen JavaScript aktivieren, damit Sie sie sehen können.
Tolerant Youth Association, Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist gegen Spambots geschützt! Sie müssen JavaScript aktivieren, damit Sie sie sehen können.

Litauische TeilnehmerInnen an der Baltic Pride 2009 in Riga. © AI.

The Lithuanian parliament has passed a law that prohibits the discussion of homosexuality in schools and bans any reference to it in public information that can be viewed by children.

The Seimas overwhelmingly voted to amend the "Law on the Protection of Minors against the Detrimental Effect of Public Information" on Tuesday. Of 74 parliamentarians that checked in for voting, 67 voted in favour of the legislation.

The amendment classes homosexuality alongside issues such as the portrayal of physical or psychological violence, the display of a dead or cruelly mutilated body of a person, and information that arouses fear or horror, or encourages self-mutilation or suicide.

Amnesty International condemned the vote by the Seimas, saying that the amendment institutionalizes homophobia and violates the right to freedom of expression and the right to be free from discrimination.

"By passing this bill, the Seimas has reinforced discrimination based on a person's sexual orientation," said Nicola Duckworth, Europe and Central Asia Programme Director at Amnesty International.

"The amendment denies the right to freedom of expression and deprives students of access to the support and protection they may need."

The new law is part of a growing climate of intimidation and discrimination in Lithuania against lesbians, gay men and bisexual and transgender people. In the past year, municipal authorities have issued derogatory statements.

An EU initiative, the "For Diversity, Against Discrimination" touring truck, was banned in Vilnius and Kaunas on 20 August 2008. The Mayor of Kaunas said that "[the] homosexual festival may cause many negative emotions."

The amendment goes against the joint statement that Lithuania signed at the UN General Assembly in December 2008, which reaffirmed that human rights apply equally to every human being regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

In 2002, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed concern about similar legislation in the UK. The legislation was introduced in 1988 and finally taken off the statute book in September 2003.

Homosexualität in Schulen tabu

In Litauen wurde ein Gesetz zum Jugendschutz verabschiedet. Kritiker behaupten, Homosexuelle würden dadurch diskriminiert.

VON REINHARD WOLFF

Kein Thema mehr in Litauens Schulen: Homosexualität. Foto: photocase/ohneski

STOCKHOLM taz | Die Homophobie in Litauen treibt neue Blüten. In der vergangenen Woche verabschiedete das Parlament in Vilnius ein neues Jugendschutzgesetz, das in Zukunft die Debatte über ein Thema wie Homosexualität an Schulen und in anderen öffentlichen Einrichtungen, die für Kinder und Jugendliche zugänglich sind, verbietet. Das Gesetz mit dem Titel "Schutz der Jugend vor schädlichen Folgen öffentlicher Informationen" wurde mit einer Mehrheit von 67 der 74 ParlamentarierInnen verabschiedet.

Die Schilderung von Homosexualität wird darin auf eine Stufe gestellt mit der Darstellung "physischer und psychischer Gewalt" und der Vermittlung anderer Informationen, die "Angst und Schrecken wecken" oder "zu eigenem Missbrauch oder Selbstmord" führen könnten.

Mehrere DebattenrednerInnen verteidigten das Gesetz: Das Verbot, Homosexualität zu thematisieren, verhindere gleichzeitig eine Diskriminierung. "Es gilt sowohl, was Propaganda angeht, aber auch was eine Verurteilung betrifft", betonte die konservative Abgeordnete Vilija Aleknaite-Abramikiene.

Diese vermeintliche Neutralität sei nichts als eine Diskriminierung Homosexueller, meint Arturas Rudomanskis von der "Toleranten Jugend Assoziation" (Tolerantisko jaunimo asociacija). Er befürchtet weitreichende Auswirkungen des Gesetzes. Da Jugendliche leicht Zugang zu Gay-Webseiten finden könnten, werde der Staat womöglich versuchen, diese zu sperren.

Das neue Jugendschutzgesetz sei viel zu unbestimmt, kritisiert Henrikas Mickevicius vom Human Rights Monitoring Institute in Vilnius. Weder werde deutlich, was die "familiären Werte" seien, welche das Gesetz schützen wolle, noch was in Zukunft zur unzulässigen "Propaganda" gegen diese vermeintlichen Werte zählen solle: "Das Gesetz öffnet Scheunentore für einen Missbrauch. Es beschränkt die Freiheit der Meinungsäußerung und ist ein Verstoß gegen grundlegende Menschenrechte."

Mickevicius glaubt, dass das Gesetz beim Europäischen Menschenrechtsgerichtshof in Straßburg landen werde. Die Homo-Organisation ILGA-Europe hat für Mittwoch in Brüssel zu Protesten vor der Vertretung Litauens bei der EU aufgerufen.

Amnesty International kritisierte das "homophobe Gesetz", das "die Meinungsfreiheit verletzt und Schülern die Unterstützung und den Schutz versagt, den sie benötigen könnten". An den scheidenden Präsidenten Valdas Adamkus appelliert Amnesty, das Gesetz nicht zu unterzeichnen.

Quelle: TAZ 22. Juni 2009