"Lithuania will not give its final answer to proposals for ensuring family diversity, as intensive public and political debate on the subject is currently taking place, while respective draft laws are being analyzed. It must be stressed that our country has no plans to equalize rights of same-sex and opposite-sex couples," Lithuania's Ministry of Justice said in a statement on Wednesday.
The statement follows recommendations on human rights in Lithuania that other countries submitted to the UN Human Rights Council last autumn.
Lithuania received 119 recommendations, and immediately accepted 43 of them. 52 recommendations were deemed as already implemented or being in the process of implementation. Lithuania committed itself to giving answers on the remaining 23 recommendations in March.
On Wednesday, Minister of Justice Remigijus Šimašius submitted his position on the remaining issues, and the government approved it.
It was also stated in the response that Lithuania does not limit ethnic minority rights and freedoms.
Many of the proposals were to do with LGBT rights, expressing concern over Lithuania's recent legislation that might infringe rights of expression for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
The latest legislative initiative in the Lithuanian Parliament includes a draft law banning sex change operations.
Another initiative aims at changing the country's Constitution so it expressly spells out that marriage is only possible between a man and a woman, thus preventing any future attempts of legalizing same-sex unions.
