On 10 December, the Committee of Ministers ended its supervision of the execution of the European Court’s judgment in Beizaras and Levickas v. Lithuania. The case concerned the refusal of law enforcement authorities to open an investigation into the applicants’ allegations of serious homophobic online hate speech in 2014, as well as the absence of an effective domestic remedy in respect of their complaint alleging a breach of the right to private life, stemming from discriminatory attitudes in the authorities’ application of domestic law.
Following the Court’s judgment, the Lithuanian authorities adopted a wide-ranging and multifaceted set of measures aimed at strengthening the investigation of hate crimes and hate speech and improving the effectiveness of domestic remedies. These measures included the adoption of new methodological guidelines, the specialisation of prosecutors, a review of previous decisions to assess whether bias constituted an element of the offence or whether there were causal links with discrimination, the development of domestic case-law, and targeted training and capacity-building for investigative authorities. Together, these reforms have led to an increase in hate crime investigations in recent years.
