Lithuania

Lithuania regularly reports hate crime data to ODIHR. Data are collected by the Police Department under the Ministry of the Interior and the Prosecutor General's Office. Lithuania's annual hate crime report is published here.

Lithuania began implementing ODIHR's Training Against Hate Crime for Law Enforcement (TAHCLE) programme in 2015 and continues to train police officers using ODIHR's training curriculum. In 2018, Lithuania co-organized a workshop on hate crime recording and data collection with ODIHR and the EU Fundamental Rights Agency. The workshop was based on ODIHR's Information Against Hate Crimes Toolkit (INFAHCT) and resulted in a set of recommendations for relevant state authorities.

In February 2020, the Lithuanian Ministry of Interior established a working group to promote an effective response to hate crimes and hate speech in Lithuania. The working group consists of representatives of seven national authorities and 11 civil society organizations. The working group proposes measures to strengthen the effectiveness of efforts to address hate crime and hate speech, monitors the implementation of international obligations, considers relevant legislation, and prepares annual reports on the situation of hate crimes and hate speech in Lithuania, among other roles.

In 2023, the Action Plan for the Implementation of Equal Opportunities, 2024-2026, was approved, and includes measures to prevent hate speech and hate crimes. Amendments were also made to recommendations for the pre-trial investigation of hate crime and hate speech, drafted with support from ODIHR, to include a definition of hate crime and bias indicators.