Legal regulation on national minorities – theory and practice

1. Legal regulation on national minorities – theory and practice • EUROPEAN FOUNDATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS 2018.10.29, Vilnius

2. ABOUT US • European Foundation of Human Rights (EFHR) – NGO in Vilnius founded in 2010; • aimed at raising people awareness on the human rights, tolerance, equality, racism, discrimination, peace culture, nationalism and intercultural dialogue.

3. FIELD OF WORK • Free legal advice; • Human rights education: • Original names spelling; • Hate speech; • Hate crime; • Discrimination; • Media and cyberspace monitoring; • Discrimination in job advertisements;

4. WHAT DO WE DO • organize free of charge trainings, workshops, conferences and lectures on human rights; • organize educational visits to regions far from the capital of Lithuania; • implement educational projects. • disseminate information on Legal Aid Center, through leaflets in Polish, Lithuanian, Russian and English.

5. EFHR REPORTS: • Alternative report prepared for the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (2011); • Alternative NGO Report on Lithuania’s Implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (2014); • ”Observance of human rights in Lithuania for years 2012 – 2013” (2014); • Alternative Report for the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) (2015); • Alternative Report about the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCPNM) in Lithuania (2018)

6. EFHR REPORTS: In 2018: • alternative report about the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCPNM) in Lithuania; • conclusions of this conference & Observance of national minorities situation in Lithuania for years 2014 – 2018; • an alternative report to Combined ninth and tenth periodic reports submitted by Lithuania under article 9 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, due in 2018

7. The rights of national minorities in Lithuanian legal acts Evelina Dobrovolska, Lawyer, European Foundation of Human Rights

8. Current situation In 2000, Lithuania, without any exception, ratified the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities; However, some of the provisions have not yet been transposed into national legislation; Since 2010 - no valid law on national minorities in Lithuania.

9. Criticism towards Lithuania - Concluding Observations on the Law on National Minorities from January 6th, 2016 of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination; - Resolution of the Committee of Ministers on the implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in Lithuania No. CM/ResCMN; (2016)9. - 2014 and 2016 OSCE reports on elections to the Parliament of Lithuania.

10. Does Lithuania really need a special law for national minorities?

11. Currently, according to the legislation, several main areas have been identified, which are not wellregulated:

12. Education of national minorities The Hague Recommendations regarding the Education Rights of National Minoritiesindicate that states must proactively ensure the education of national minorities and also disclose the benefits of educating a person in their native language; The unification of Lithuanianlanguage exam, as well as reorganization of the school network, is not a violation of rights of national minorities – but more like how it is done.

13. Education of national minorities This year the Lithuanian language exam did not pass 23.5% of minority schools students (which is 4.2% more than last year), and 7.8% of students from Lithuanian schools.

14. 2. Elections The existing electoral threshold in Lithuania, which has no exceptions for national minority parties, does not allow national minorities to participate competitively in the governance of the state and in political decisionmaking; The lack of information about elections in the national minorities language complicates the implementation of the rights of this group.

15. 3. The original spelling of names and surnames Currently, valid legal acts of Lithuania do not allow the registration of names or/and surnames not only with the letters "w", "q" or "x", but also with double letters, such as "nn", "ll" etc; National minoties cannot name their child(ren), for example, "Anna", although there are several hundred similar records in the Lithuanian PopulationRegistry.

16. 4. Bilingual street names Official street names are allowed only in the Lithuanian language; In 2009, The Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania has stated that, in complying with these conditions and with Article 2 par. 2 of the ratification of the Convention, the Government of the Republic of Lithuania must establish the procedure for the implementation of the provisions of the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities which are not provided in the law of the Republic of Lithuania.

17. 5. The minority language in public life By 2015, the request sent in non-state language will be translated to Lithuanian by the institution to which it belongs, in accordance with its competence. From 2015, having regard to the functions performed by the institution and the competence of the civil servants, the head of the institution has the right to identify other languages in which written applications may be accepted, however, in practice almost no institutions had used this right. All reports submitted to Lithuania or about Lithuania regarding the situation of national minorities are not available in any minority language.

18. 6. Minority access to national media According to OSCE recommendations „The Oslo Recommendations regarding the Linguistic Rights of National Minorities & Explanatory Note“, national minorities must have a guaranteed access (with appropriate financial support) to the national media.This access must reflect the number, distribution and needs of national minorities(Guidelines on the use of Minority Languages in the Broadcast Media).

19. The conclusion is that the problems presented are solely dueto the lack of law.

20. It is worth noting that the Department of National Minorities did not consult with non-governmental organizations when preparing the fourth report of the Republic of Lithuania on the implementation of the FrameworkConvention of the Council of Europe for the Protection of National Minorities in Lithuania.

21. Significant changes Legal regulations prohibiting discrimination and hate speech because of nationality are in line with international standards. Mayor of Vilnius Remigijus Šimašius already put up a number of decorative street names in minority languages. The website of the Vilnius City Municipality, as well as the website of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is translated to Polish and Russian.

22. Address: J. Dobkevičiaus str. 6, Vilnius Tel: +(370) 691 50 822 E-mail: info@efhr.eu www.efhr.eu https://www.facebook.com/EFHR.EU/ EvelinaDobrovolska, Lawyer, European Foundation of Human Rights