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In a judgement of a case of Sidabras and Others v. Lithuania (nos. 50421/08 and 56213/08) the European Court of Human Rights (the ECHR) held that there had not been the act of infringement of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (hereinafter – the Convention) in the cases brought before the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania.

The European Court of Human Rights itself had already declared a breach of the Convention in its earlier decisions on the prohibition on the applicants of the aforementioned case from obtaining employment in the private sector because of their former KGB officer status. This is the basis on which the applicants have been dismissed in accordance with the Law on the Evaluation of the USSR State Security Committee (NKVD, NKGB, MGB, KGB) and the Present Activities of Former Permanent Employees of the Organisation (hereinafter – the KGB Act).

The applicants again applied to the European Court of Human Rights and complained that the provisions of the KGB Act, preventing the former KGB employees from obtaining employment in certain areas of the private sector, have not been repealed despite previous decisions of the ECHR. In deciding on the applicants whose appeals for compensation in respect of the harm suffered had been investigated by SACL, the European Court of Human Rights found that there has been no violation of the Convention. The Court concluded that no one of the applicants has convincingly demonstrated that the prohibition of obtaining the private sector employment, which is embedded in the KGB Act, has again had direct consequences.

In these cases, SACL stressed that both the nature of the Convention, as an international legal act, as well as the purpose of the Convention – the protection of human rights – determine that this Convention is directly applied to legal relations of the case in the Republic of Lithuania, and in the event of a conflict between the legal norms of the Convention and national laws, the Convention is to be given priority over national legislation. However, in the cases of both applicants, SACL found no evidence concerning the refusal to employ them on the basis of the restrictions provided for in the KGB Act, and on this basis, the Court did not satisfy the applicants’ complaints for damages.

For the judgement of the European Court of Human Rights the in the case of Sidabras and Others v. Lithuania, see this link.

For more information see the website of the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania www.lvat.lt. Please indicate the source of information when quoting or otherwise using the latter material.