STOCKHOLM — Top European Union and non-governmental organization officials said the Baltic states are failing to uphold human rights at this week’s Equality Summit in Stockholm.

The summit, held Monday and Tuesday, brought together representatives of NGOs, trade unions, and governments of EU member states to examine how to fight discrimination, especially given the exacerbation of societal tensions caused by the economic crisis. While discussing human rights in the Baltic states was not on the official agenda of the conference specifically, in a series of exclusive interviews the treatment of women in all three countries, the treatment of homosexuals in Lithuania and the treatment of ethnic Russians in Latvia and Estonia were criticized by members of the European Commission, the Council of Europe and several NGOs including the Social Platform, an alliance of European non-governmental organizations.

Myria Vassiliadou, vice president of the Social Platform, chastised Lithuania’s recently-passed “protection of minors” law that many are criticizing as legalizing discrimination against homosexuals.

“I think it is absolutely appalling, antidemocratic and it’s an infringement of basic human rights,” Myria Vassiliadou, vice president of the Social Platform, told Baltic Reports. “I think on this moment, Lithuania is not really working for its people and with its people, as in any place you suppress human rights, any place you suppress human rights on such a large level.”

Sweden's Minister of Integration and Gender Equality Myamko Sabuni (left) and European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs & Equal Opportunities Vladimír Špidla give a press conference at the Equality Summit in Stockholm Tuesday. Špidla warned that EU member states that do not comply with human rights directives will face consequences. Photo by Nathan Greenhalgh.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė has appointed a panel to revise the law, and the European Commission is keeping a close eye on what version of the law the small Baltic nation implements in March.

“We’re following the issue very carefully,” European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs & Equal Opportunities Vladimír Špidla told Baltic Reports. “We will only formally comment when the law takes effect. We expect them to be fully compliant … we’ll continue to assure that member states comply with legislation and when they don’t we’ll take action.”

Ending statelessness

Lithuania was not the only Baltic state to catch the ire of mainstream Europe — the failures of Estonia and Latvia to better integrate their ethnic Russian minorities was also singled out.

“I think that first of all they should look at one another, as the historic background is more similar than different … I think there is a bit of self-scrutiny to be done there to meet new times,” Thomas Hammarberg, commissioner for human rights for the Council of Europe, told Baltic Reports. “The points we have made is at least one should secure that children born in the country should have a clear option to be a citizen of the country, full citizens and only as an initiative of parents who have other citizenship should that be considered … I think there is a need to encourage the children to be citizens, we should not have a situation where children are stateless.”

Business as usual no more

Despite featuring women in top political positions the Baltic states lag behind northwestern Europe, particularly Scandinavia in providing equal pay for similar work between men and women.

Špidla says the main priority is valuing women’s work the same as that of men.

“Some sectors have become more feminized over time; the the pay decreases more the more feminized it becomes. Teaching, when it was a male-dominated sector, it was one of the best-paid careers. Now that it’s female-dominated the salaries have decreased significantly,” Špidla told Baltic Reports. “It’s not necessarily same job, same pay, it’s that we don’t value women’s work the same.”

Speakers throughout the two-day summit highlighted that it wouldn’t be just governments ending discrimination but also NGOs and for-profit companies cooperating. Vassiliadou said businesses in the Baltic states must start behaving more responsibly toward the rest of society.

“I think it’s impossible to move forward without corporate responsibility. I think the way the financial crisis has been addressed is very short-sighted,” Vassiliadou told Baltic Reports. “I think one of the problems that we’ve noticed is companies that, throughout this crisis, the companies that tend to put their equality principles in place tend to do better … this crisis is the only chance we’ll have in a very long time to have a change in how we do business. I think the cost of inequality is huge, in terms of financial costs, in terms of criminality.”