Population size:
2,786,844 [1]
Number of people experiencing domestic abuse each year:
4% of women have experienced domestic violence in the last 12 months, 24% have experienced it in their lifetime.[2]
No research on male victims or other gender identities.
Cost of domestic abuse to the economy each year:
3.2% of GDP.[3]
Estimated % change due to COVID-19:
Domestic killings doubled in Lithuania during quarantine. [4]
Current law and policy:
Lithuania was committed to a national plan until 2020 focused on the prevention of domestic violence through raising awareness and addressing its complex system of assistance. Legal protections exist under the 2011 Protection against Violence Laws.
Lithuania's national programme for the prevention of domestic violence and provision of assistance to victims for the period of 2013-2020 sets out two main objectives to increase public awareness of domestic violence and to improve its provision of assistance looking specifically at the complexity of its current mechanism. Each objective has their own goals; objective one to be met through raising public awareness of the manifestations of domestic violence and encouraging intolerance of such behaviours, improving the qualifications of those who support the prevention of violence such as social workers, healthcare workers, law enforcement, educators and specialists and thirdly to create and implement preventive measures for those who seek to correct their own violent behaviours. Legal protections for victims of domestic violence exist under the Protection from Violence Law 2011. The ministry of social security and labour is tasked with implementation and monitoring this plan.
The minister for social security and labour has described domestic violence as a “major problem” when discussing the Istanbul convention (Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence) which has been signed in 2013 but is not yet ratified. Lack of ratification stems around the convention’s acceptance of non-stereotypical gender roles and the fear that this could lead to a push for same-sex marriage. A series of awareness campaigns have been run.
Sources
[1] The World Bank, (1)
[2] UN Women, “Global Database on Violence Against Women – Lithuania”, (evaw-global-database.unwomen.org)
Further Reading