Valaitis v. Lithuania, No. 39375/19, ECtHR (Second Section), 17 January 2023

Hate speech on the internet with discriminatory content against homosexual people. No violation of right to an effective remedy.

Art. 13 ECHR

1. The obligation of the States Parties to conduct an effective investigation under the Convention is an obligation as to means, not as to results. There is no absolute obligation for all prosecutions to result in conviction, or in a particular sentence.

2. In order to be effective, the remedy required by Article 13 must be available in practice as well as in law, in particular in the sense that its exercise must not be unjustifiably hindered by the acts or omissions of the authorities of the respondent State.

3. The provisions of the Convention must be interpreted and applied in a manner which renders their safeguards practical and effective, not theoretical and illusory.
(The applicant complained that Lithuanian authorities had failed to take effective measures to protect homosexual individuals from hate speech, following the online publication of comments insulting both the applicant and homosexual people, in response to an article he wrote referring to a gay finalist in the TV singing competition The Voice. The Court found no violation of the right to an effective remedy under article 13, given that the reopening of the investigations by the state authorities had constituted a measure in compliance with the state’s positive obligation to effectively respond to the complaint, in line with the earlier judgment Beizaras and Levickas v. Lithuania).