Constitutional Court initially allowed Polish surnames

Constitutional Court declared that on the basis of the proposal of linguists the Parliament can change rules so that names and surnames in passports would be written not only with letters from Lithuanian alphabet.

Constitutional Court decided that the Parliament should receive clear instructions and clear interpretation from linguists while changing the way of writing surnames. The opinion of linguists cannot be disregarded by the Parliament.

The government does not want to comment on the case yet, because in their opinion it is crucial to become more acquainted with the judgment and make sure whether it actually allows original spelling of non-Lithuanian names and surnames.

The Minister of Justice Juozas Bernatonis submitted a request to the court, in which he asks to explain if Commission of the Lithuanian Language can initialize an amendment to the law concerning the spelling of surnames.

On October 21^st 1999 Constitutional Court declared that ‘citizen’s name and surname in passport should be written in the state language, because otherwise constitutional status of the state language would be denied.’

Poles who live in Lithuania want to be allowed to write names and surnames in their documents using Polish alphabet.

Source: http://zw.lt/litwa/sad-konstytucyjny-wstepnie-zezwolil-na-polskie-nazwiska/

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