Congress rapporteur for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people (LGBT), Yoomi Renström (Sweden), condemned the vote taken in June in the Lithuanian Parliament in favour of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex couples from the constitutional concept of family life. “This proposal goes against Europe’s progress towards an open and modern society and to our understanding that the rights of individual citizens and equality before the law should prevail against an unqualified defence of old traditional values. A family constellation today can be imagined in many different ways, regardless of what people think is right or wrong, and a constitution that defines a family in a narrow way will put the children in other kinds of families at risk. This is not in line with the protection of children’s rights” she underlined. Ms Renström concluded that after all the progress made in promoting the rights of LGBT people, it was worrying to see a member State of the Council of Europe such as Lithuania backtracking on hard won progress.

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Resolution 380 (2015) on LGBT people’s rights
Recommendation 370 (2015) on LGBT people’s rights
Explanatory memorandum CPL(17)2
Lithuanian Gay League website