• June 24, 2015
  • 364

Institutional discrimination

Lithuanian Ministry of Justice is proposing explicitly discriminating way of changing the Lithuanian Constitution.

As we informed many times, Lithuania once again raised the issue on the referendum concerning the dual citizenship.

The initiators of the referendum want to repeal the 12th Article, paragraph 2 of the Constitution, which states: “With the exception of particular cases mentioned in the act, no one can be both a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania and the another nation”.

The Ministry of Justice supports the idea of the referendum, yet induces not to repealing this section of the Constitution, only to reformulate it.

The department proposes a modified record to the Constitution: “only a person with the Lithuanian origin (or other, in the cases specified by law) can be at the same time a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania and other country.

We remind you that article 29th of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania states that “It is forbidden to restrict human rights or to establish the privileges basing on gender, race, nationality, language, origin, social status, religion, beliefs or views.”

Translated by Paulina Lipińska within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.

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