Law of voluntary activity: the images of volunteering in the political-social discussion for its approvement

Straipsnyje nagrinėjamos 2011 m. Lietuvoje priimto Savanoriškos veiklos įstatymo rengimo ir priėmimo aplinkybės, politinė-visuomeninė diskusija dėl tokio įstatymo poreikio ir jo turinio, dominavę savanorystės įvaizdžiai. Siekiama išsiaiškinti, kaip šie įvaizdžiai siejasi su Lietuvoje vyraujančiomis savanoriškos veiklos sampratomis ir su Vakarų pasaulyje (Europoje ir JAV) įsitvirtinusiu savanorystės suvokimu. Įstatymo priėmimas ir dėmesio savanoriškai veiklai padidėjimas 2011 m. Lietuvoje buvo susijęs su visoje Europos Sąjungoje minėtais Europos savanoriškos veiklos metais.Circumstances of the Law of Voluntary Activity preparation and approvement in 2011 in Lithuania, political-social discussion on the need of such a law and its content and the images of volunteering, dominated in this situation, are being analyzed in this article. The goal of this analysis is to find out how these kind of images may be linked with the contemporary definitions of volunteering, dominated in Lithuania and in the Western world. The approvement of such a law and the increasing of the public attention for volunteering in 2011 in Lithuania is a result of European year of volunteering, which were implemented in 2011 in all the European Union. The results of the analysis implemented show that the Law of Voluntary Activity and the situations of its preparation are being treated quite carefully among the representatives of the voluntary organizations. They state, that the approvement of the Law mentioned doesn’t create any new conditions for the development of volunteering in Lithuania. The situations of volunteering are being defined by using soft, not-strictly regulating vocabulary, so the Law often is being called as the schedule of the situation. However it is not possible to find any specific or contradictory images of volunteering in the fragment of the political discussion on the approvement of the Law, which was analyzed in the article. An institutional image of volunteering may be found here only