NATIONAL LEGAL AND POLICY FRAMEWORK CONCERNING DEFENDANTS AND PERSONS DEPRIVED
OF LIBERTY WITH INTELLECTUAL AND/OR PSYCHOSOCIAL DISABILITIES IN LAW AND PRACTICE
36
Such a definition established in Lithuanian law is
not in line with the concept established by the UN
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
(CRPD)30 nor with the definition given by the Court
of Justice of the European Union.31, 32 In its concluding
observations in 2016, the UN Committee on the Rights
of Persons with Disabilities expressed its concern ‘that
the definition and understanding of disability in State
party laws and regulations focuses on the individual
impairment, thereby neglecting the social and relational
dimension of disability, including, in particular, the
barriers faced by persons with disabilities’, and urged
Lithuania to change that.33
It is important to note that at the end of 2022, the
Lithuanian Parliament adopted amendments to the
Law on Social Integration of Persons with Disabilities,
implementing the disability reform. The reform will
United Nations. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,
2006. Available at: https://bit.ly/3RQYYb6.
31 The Court defines disability as a limitation which results in particular
from long-term physical, mental or psychological impairments which,
in interaction with various barriers, may hinder the full and effective
participation of the person concerned in
professional life on an equal basis with other workers. The Court has also
stressed that an illness cannot simply amount to a disability (Court of Justice
of the European Union. Judgment of 11 April, 2013 in the cases Ring and
Skouboe Werge C-335/11 and C-337/11).
32 Andriukaitis G., Guliakaitė M. (2021) Country report on nondiscrimination (Lithuania). Transposition and implementation at national level
of Council Directives 2000/43 and 2000/78. Available in English at:
https://bit.ly/46JoUtG.
33 UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2016),
Concluding observations on the initial report of Lithuania, CRPD/C/LTU/
CO/1, available in English at: https://bit.ly/46qyXE4.
30
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