The Seimas Committee on Human Rights accepted the project of an act on Minorities

Today, the Seimas Committee on Human Right debated on a project of an Act on national minorities. Members of the Committee accepted the proposal.

The first reading of the project of the Act about national minorities took place in 2012 during the previous tenure of the Seimas. The Committee on Human Rights, which worked on the project as a basic committee, accepted the project with five votes pro and two votes against it.

Leonard Talmont, head of the Committee and deputy of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania, announced that they will make further efforts for the Act to be passes. He highlighted that the lack of such an act is an unacceptable loophole in regulating the functioning of minorities in Lithuania.

“I am really glad about the fact that during the discussion of the project of the Act, the necessity of passing it was highlighted even by the conservative member, who himself voted for the passing. It is wrong, however, that it is already three years when there is no legal regulation on the functioning of national minorities in Lithuania. Tomorrow, the Seimas will hold the second reading of the project. We will make further efforts for the project to be passes, which will fill the unacceptable loophole in regulating rights and duties of citizens of Lithuania belonging to national minorities” – told us Leonard Talmont.

During the last session of the Lithuanian political board of the ruling coalition, to which belong, among others, the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania, members agreed that the second reading of the project will soon take place. It is set to be tomorrow.

The Act means that the previous Act on minorities, which expired in 2010 after having been in force for 19 years, will be reinstated. On Monday session, the coalition agreeably announced that this situation is temporary and will be changed with the implementation of the new Act on national minorities.

Source: http://www.l24.lt/pl/polityka/item/23623-sejmowy-komitet-praw-czlowieka-zaaprobowal-projekt-ustawy-o-mniejszosciach-narodowych

Tłumaczenie by Awa Ratajczak w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Awa Ratajczak within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.