ANNUAL REPORT OF 2019 ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE SEIMAS OMBUDSMEN’S OFFICE OF THE REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA legally incapacitated only in certain areas, in the event of a change in the legal status (capacity) of persons, not only the rights and freedoms of these persons have not been effectively protected, but this also has led to excessive restrictions of the rights and freedoms of these persons. It should be noted that the guardians of legally incapacitated persons, in performing their functions provided for in the Civil Code and acting unselfishly in the interests of the legally incapacitated persons placed in their care, had to immediately apply for review of the court rulings passed before 1 January 2016 following which the persons were declared to be legally incapacitated, and that the country’s municipalities in exercising the supervision and control of guardians and caretakers had to take all measures to properly inform the guardians of persons who were declared to be legally incapacitated by court rulings passed before 1 January 2016. Furthermore, it should be concluded that the guardians of persons who were declared to be legally incapacitated by court rulings passed before 1 January 2016 were not properly familiarised with the process and objectives of the ongoing review of legal incapacity and that the country’s municipalities were not prepared to organise the provision of information and assistance to the guardians of those persons, which has led to an unjustified restriction on the rights and freedoms of the persons who were declared to be legally incapacitated before 1 January 2016. It was also established that the country’s municipalities do not have uniform practices of collecting, accumulating and systematizing data on persons declared to be legally incapacitated, and some municipalities do not collect such data at all. Under the applicable legal regulation, municipalities are responsible for the supervision and control of guardians of the persons; consequently, such processing raises doubts not only about the proper performance of the functions of municipalities, but also about the proper ensuring of the protection of the rights and freedoms of persons who were EVERYONE COUNTS 20 declared to be legally incapacitated by court rulings passed before 1 January 2016. Misapplication of the provisions of Article 72(2) of the Law Amending the Civil Code was also influenced by the quality of forensic psychiatric examinations and excessive time limit for their performance. In the course of the investigation it was concluded that no proper preparations have been made for the implementation of the provisions of Article 72(2) of the Law Amending the Civil Code, thus creating preconditions for unjustified restriction of rights and freedoms of persons, who were declared to be legally incapable before 1 January 2016, and that the country may still have over 1,605 persons, who had been declared to be legally incapable by court rulings passed before 1 January 2016, which have not been revised until now, i.e. almost two years after the expiry of the review period. Thus, while the current legal framework de jure provides greater protection for the rights of persons declared to be legally incapable, de facto approximately half of such persons are still declared to be legally incapable in all recommended areas, which severely restricts their access to rights and freedoms and is incompatible with the provisions of Article 12 of the Convention. In regard to the circumstances established during the investigation, the Seimas Ombudsman recommended to the Government of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter also – the Government) to ensure that all court decisions following which persons were declared to be legally incapacitated adopted before 1 January 2016 are revised, take measures to ensure smooth and timely transfer of data on persons (to be legally incapacitated), which may restrict the rights of these persons, to other authorities in charge and to consider improving legal regulation in order to ensure the appropriate, unified and effective methodology for processing of the data on persons who were declared to be legally incapacitated. The Seimas Ombudsman also recommended to the Minister of Social Security and Labour that consideration be given to improving