International Legal Conference “Twenty Years of The Membership of The Republic of Lithuania in The Council of Europe: Lessons and Prospects“
On 7 June 2013, an international conference “Twenty Years of the Membership of the Republic of Lithuania in the Council of Europe: Lessons and Prospects” was hosted in order to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the membership of Lithuania in the Council of Europe. The conference was organised by the institute of International and European Union Law of VU Faculty of Law, European Community Studies Association and European Inter – University Centre for Human Rights and Democratization.
The conference was opened and attended by Thorbjørn Jagland, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe; Gediminas Šerkšnys, the Ambassador and the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Lithuania at the Council of Europe; Prof. Habil. Dr. Jūras Banys, the Rector of Vilnius University; Tomas Davulis, the Dean of the Faculty of Law and Mr. Emanuelis Zingeris. The presentations were made by the members of the Institute of International and European Union Law, the representatives of the European Court of Human Rights and the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, and researchers of foreign and Lithuanian universities.
The participants of the conference discussed the issues of the role and the impact of the Council of Europe on the development of legal systems of the Republic of Lithuania: the institutionalisation of the main human rights through the realisation of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and European Social Charter, the protection of the rights of national minorities, legal regulation of the citizenship, and the fight against discrimination and intolerance.