ANNUAL REPORT OF 2019 ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE SEIMAS OMBUDSMEN’S OFFICE OF THE REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA Investigation into the fundamental human rights problems relating to the smoking ban in the territory of the Central Prison Hospital The Seimas Ombudsman conducted the investigation into the fundamental human rights problems related to the smoking ban in the territory of the Central Prison Hospital (hereinafter also referred to as the CPH), during which he assessed the applicable legal regulation and other information collected during the investigation. In the course of the investigation, two groups of persons held in the hospital, namely (1) patients and (2) the convicted serving the imprisonment sentence in the CPH were identified in accordance with the regulations of the CPH and the internal rules of CPH. Hence, at present the CPH is both a penal enforcement institution and a medical institution. In this context, persons held in the hospital and the staff working in it must comply not only with the provisions of the legal acts regulating activities of prison institutions but also with the provisions governing the activities of medical institutions. Under the current legal regulation, trade in tobacco products and smoking (consuming tobacco products and e-cigarettes) is prohibited without exception in all health care institutions, while the convicted serving the imprisonment sentence are prohibited from keeping tobacco products in the in-patient departments of the hospitals in places of imprisonment and in secondary outpatient personal health care units of health care services of correctional institutions. In this context, those prohibitions must apply both to the patients of the CPH and to the convicted serving imprisonment sentence in that institution. The ban on the sale and smoking of tobacco products in hospitals of the places of imprisonment and their territories is enshrined in law and is absolute, regardless of the status of the persons there, although, under both the Penal Enforcement Code and Internal Rules of Correctional Institutions, EVERYONE COUNTS 25 adult convicts serving a sentence in other correctional institutions have the right to purchase tobacco products and supplies and smoke. In this context, the Seimas Ombudsman acknowledged that those convicts, who were transferred to continue serving their sentence to the CPH and had the right to purchase tobacco products and supplies and to smoke before their transfer were placed in a worse position than those convicts, who were transferred to other correctional institutions. In order to ensure that the principle of equal treatment of persons, who have been transferred to the CPH to serve the imprisonment sentence and who are not the CPH patients is not violated, the Seimas Ombudsman applied to the Ministries of Justice, Health Care, the Prisons Department and the Department of Drugs, Tobacco and Alcohol Control for clarifications and expert opinion. Having assessed the request of the Seimas Ombudsman within their remit, the said institutions informed that in order to balance the interests of smokers and non-smokers in the matter under consideration, representatives of the Department of Drugs, Tobacco and Alcohol Control, the Prisons Department, the Ministry of Justice and Health organised the inter-institutional meeting in which it was recognised by consensus that the use of tobacco products and related products is not prohibited in the Republic of Lithuania, and that the specific status of the arrested and convicted persons does not create conditions for these persons to purchase and use these products in other places. During the meeting it was also noted that the convicted (detainees) living and treated in prison hospitals and in their territories cannot purchase and consume tobacco products. Participants of the meeting decided to initiate an amendment to the Law on the Control of Tobacco, Tobacco Products and Products Related to Tobacco Products, providing for an exception from the absolute prohibition to sell tobacco products by distance selling in institutions and to use tobacco products and e-cigarettes in prison hospitals and their territory.