On July 31, the Human Rights Monitoring Institute together with the Lithuanian Bar Association held round table discussions on the application of European Union directives on criminal proceedings.

The chairman of the Lithuanian Bar Association, Ignas Vėgėlė, opened the debate by greeting the gathering of lawyers and noting that all directives to be discussed - especially the directive on the right of access to a lawyer - are important to practitioners who are directly involved in the protection of a person's rights and interests in criminal proceedings.

Rights often not protected in practice

The participants discussed the national implementation of the EU directives on the right to translation and on the right to information in criminal proceedings. They also considered what amendments to acts of law and established practice will be necessary to properly implement the EU directive on the right of access to a lawyer in criminal proceedings, which must be transposed into Lithuanian law by 2016.

Remarks by participating lawyers and criminal law experts revealed that although the directives on the right to translation and on the right to information have been formally transposed into Lithuanian law, the rights they are meant to guarantee are often not protected in practice. The translation services provided to suspects often suffer from quality issues, especially when they involve exotic languages that are rarely spoken in Lithuania. This problem is further compounded by the fact that translations are not subject to any real quality control, and no self-regulatory mechanism has been established by translators.

Procedural abuse and obstacles for the defense

On the other hand, as far as a suspect's - or their counsel's - right to information in criminal proceedings is concerned, it is restrictions placed on the access to material from pre-trial investigation that are most problematic. The lawyers noted that law enforcement personnel were prone to either manipulating or downright abusing procedural provisions, thus creating obstacles for the defense to access necessary documents.

The right of access to a lawyer is also beset by similar problems: even though this right is, in essence, already protected by Lithuanian law, law enforcement personnel sometimes create artificial obstacles or difficulties for lawyers trying to get in touch with their clients, or hamper their ability to do so on time.

More than one participant noted that while many of the rights provided for in the directives have found their way into Lithuanian legislation, in practice, making use of these rights is often made so difficult that it defeats the very purpose of having them in the first place.

The Human Rights Monitoring Institute and the Lithuanian Bar Association plan to make use of the ideas and information collected during these discussions when preparing proposals on any necessary amendments to both practice and regulation, to be submitted to state institutions responsible for criminal law policy.