The Debate about Soviet genocide in Lithuania in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights
LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Sovietinis genocidas; Partizanai; Europos Žmogaus Teisių Teismas (European Court of Human Rights); Europos žmogaus teisių ir pagrindinių laisvių apsaugos konvencija (European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms); Soviet genocide; Partisans.
ENSince 1990 Lithuania has been claiming that what happened there during Soviet occupation is genocide, as per the 1948 Genocide Convention, which embodies universal justice for suppressed nations and other groups. Due to Soviet actions in Lithuania throughout the periods of 1940-1941 and 1944-1990, the country lost almost one fifth of its population. The application of Lithuanian national legal regulations regarding this issue has been recently discussed in the framework of another postwar international legal instrument – the European Convention of Human Rights (1950). The goal of this article is to examine the main debates, which were revealed by the European Court of Human Rights in the cases of Vasiliauskas v. Lithuania (2015) and Drelingas v. Lithuania (2019), regarding the killings of Lithuanian partisans, including the recognition of the significance of partisans for the Lithuanian nation, the foreseeability of genocide “in part,” as well as the punishment for complicity in killing Lithuanian partisans. [From the publication]
- Čekistinė kariuomenė Lietuvoje 1944-1953 metais: NKVD-MVD-MGB kariuomenė partizaninio karo laikotarpiu / Juozas Starkauskas. Vilnius : Lietuvos gyventojų genocido ir rezistencijos tyrimo centras, 1998. 541 p.
- Deconstruction of Soviet deportations in Lithuania in the context of the Genocide Convention / Dovilė Sagatienė. International criminal law review..
- Lietuvių tautos sovietinis naikinimas 1940-1958 metais / Arvydas Anušauskas. Vilnius : Mintis, 1996. 494 p.
- Resistance and rebellion : lessons from Eastern Europe / Roger D. Petersen. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2001. XV, 321 p.
- The Baltic model of civic-patriotic history / Violeta Davoliūtė. Journal of genocide research. 2022, 24, 2, p. 264-275.
- The Problem of Soviet colonialism in the Baltics / Epp Annus. Journal of Baltic studies. 2012, vol. 43, no. 1, p. 21-45.
- The Transformation of Lithuanian memories of Soviet crimes to genocide recognition / Dovilė Sagatienė. International journal of transitional justice 2022, vol. 16, iss. 3, p. 1-10.
- Vasiliauskas vs. Lithuania : battle lost in the war to come? / Justinas Žilinskas. International Comparative Jurisprudence. 2016, Vol. 2, no. 2, p. 67-71.
