13 juin 2012

UN HRC registers case Paksas v. Lithuania, 2155/2012



On 06/06/2012 the United Nations Human Rights Committee registered the case of my client Rolandas Paksas, impeached President of Lithuania, versus Lithuania. The President was impeached on 06/04/2004. On 25/05/2004 the Lithuanian Constitutional Court prohibited him to stand for elections for life. This lifelong prohibition also covers the right to be nominated Prime Minister or minister (he is twice former Prime Minister).

We partially won this case before the European Court of Human Rights on 06/01/2011, but the Strasbourg judges interpreted that the European Convention of Human Rights covers only the right to stand for parliamentary elections. Moreover, they did not find a violation of presumption of innocence and of the principle of impartiality during the national proceedings. Therefore, the former President took a decision to continue before the UN HRC.