"Maybe I can just say that Amnesty International is very disappointed about the city council's decision today," Amnesty International representative Helle Jacobsen told journalists on Wednesday.
Following a meeting at Vilnius Municipality earlier in the day, she said that the March for Equality, planned for July 27, is being organized to demand equal rights. In her words, signatures will be collected for the march to take place.
"We are going to collect signatures. We are going to deliver them to the mayor and to the president of Lithuania. We are going to continue to put pressure on the government and we also want to assure that Europe is watching. And we are also going to march in the Baltic Pride. This not a local event in Vilnius, this is an international event at the same time as hosting EU presidency. So our hopes are that government and the City Council of Vilnius will live up to the international obligations," Jacobsen said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Vilnius authorities refused to allow the Lithuanian Gay League to hold a march through Gedimino Avenue.
The municipality said in a statement that "there's a strong possibility that incidents may repeat, despite the police involvement, and there may also be a threat to the public order, morality, and public security."
"Lithuania is a member of the EU, and it is a problem, that it has to take that many court cases and that many problems just to get permission for a gay parade," Jacobsen, who also attended the meeting, said.
She noted that politicians from EU member states would come to the march.
"We are going to participate in the parade with 40 delegates from EU countries. We are also going to bring politicians," she said.
Having received a court's backing in one appeal case, the organizers plan to appeal again.
Social Democratic Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius on Wednesday refused to comment on the issue, saying that it's the issue of competence of politicians from Vilnius Municipality.
Last week, the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania ordered Vilnius authorities to review their decision to allow the gay march on a street a little further from central Vilnius.
Having heard the organizers' appeal, the court ruled that Vilnius City Municipality had made a non-substantiated decision to move the event to Upės Street.
The march is scheduled for July 27.
The march organizers believe they should be allowed to march through a street where marches and demonstrations often take place.
The first gay march in Lithuania took place in 2010, which was also preceded by court hearings on the march location and permission to hold it. The march itself took place eventually, with several hundred people marching through a heavily-guarded territory in the presence of around a thousand protesters.
