Probleminiai žmogaus teisių apsaugos aspektai Lietuvos Respublikos baudžiamojoje justicijoje Europos žmogaus teisių konvencijos požiūriu (I dalis)

Abstract

Considering quite a large number of cases, which Lithuania has lost in the European Court of Human Rights, especially the fact that in most cases it was proved that Lithuania had violated human rights in the area of criminal justice, this article pursues several purposes. One is to examine the influence of the European Convention on Human Rights to Lithuanian criminal justice during almost thirteen years of this document’s application in the Republic of Lithuania. Other purposes are to name the so-called “systematic” problems of Lithuanian criminal justice, and to disclose new defects of this branch, which the European Court of Human Rights has stated in recent cases against the Republic of Lithuania. Another objective is to identify the reasons of such violations and analyze if everything has been done to block the way for such violations to be repeated. In the first chapter of the article violations of the Convention, which were stated in cases against Lithuania and were concerned with criminal justice, namely Articles 3, 5, 6 and 8 are analyzed. On the grounds of jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights those articles of the Convention, which were violated by Lithuania, are commented, and cases in which Lithuania has suffered defeat are also briefly discussed. It is also stated what was the reason of every violation in each case – whether it was because of the faulty Lithuanian legal acts or misguided application of laws caused the violation. For this reason legal acts, which were in force and which were relevant to the situation at that time are analyzed, when the concrete right of the claimant was infringed, and the current legal situation in Lithuania is also reviewed. This is done in order to see if anything was done to escape further analogical violations of the Convention (if it was even possible to do so) and if the valid laws of Lithuania protect concrete human rights properly.In the second chapter of the article the character and the number of applications concerned with criminal justice against Lithuania, starting from 20 June 1995 when the right to bring an application against Lithuania came into force, up to recent days, are analyzed. For that reason it is possible to review how problematic dimensions of human rights protection in Lithuanian criminal justice has been changing over time and what threats in that sphere can arise in the future. At the end of the article a summary of the analyzed issues and the most important conclusions are submitted.