The Issue of the Constitutionality of the Istanbul Convention in Lithuania

Abstract

Lithuania signed the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (the Istanbul Convention) in 2013 but has not yet ratified it. On 14 March 2024, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania adopted a conclusion on the compatibility of certain provisions of the Istanbul Convention with the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania. This article analyses the compatibility of the Istanbul Convention with the Constitution of Lithuania. The article examines this issue in a broader context of the cultural, political and legal controversies surrounding this convention in Eastern and Central Europe. It addresses the doubts surrounding the convention in Eastern and Central European countries and the decisions of the constitutional courts of these countries on the constitutionality of the provisions of the Istanbul Convention; it also discusses the doubts raised in Lithuania on the constitutionality of the Convention and the approach of the Constitutional Court of Lithuania to these doubts.