Passing the buck

The State Commission of the Lithuanian Language, the institutions that uphold law and order, and even the Constitutional Court have certainly not entered the silly season. A week ago the Lithuanian government turned to the language commission for their opinion about the original spelling of surnames in identity documents. As the Ministry of Justice has devised a few ways of regulating the spelling of non-Lithuanian names and surnames, the government has concluded that the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language is to make a decision on the spelling of foreign names and surnames. The current legal regulations do not cover the problem, and the Ministry of Justice does not settle linguistic issues, dealing with legal issues only. “The right proposition will be submitted when we learn the opinion of the Commission, unless it is necessary to turn to the Constitutional Court,” said Juozas Bernatonis, the Minister of Justice. 

A day before, on July 26, 2013, President Dalia Grybauskaite explicitly stated that the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania does not permit the original spelling of non-Lithuanian surnames and that she cannot stand against it. The vicious circle therefore expanded in ever-widening circles. Could the Ministry of Justice have not heard the statement made by the head of the state? Or, does the Ministry only need the opinion or the final decision of the Commission? I’ll give half my kingdom to the one who will count how many similar interpellations there have been in the past twenty years. So far, everything has ended in consulting the commission of linguists or the Constitutional Court.

As we know, in its programme, the current government has pledged to solve the issue of the spelling of names and surnames in identity documents as well as the spelling of the names of streets and towns by referring to the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. Since in Lithuania a new National Minority Act has not been passed yet, passing the buck in the issue concerning the spelling of surnames will still continue. The Commission has already announced that it will get down to forming an opinion about the subject in September, after the holiday season is over.

At the same time, the European Foundation of Human Rights lodged a complaint against the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language to the District Administrative Court of Vilnius. The Commission had not bothered to intervene in the issue of using the letter “w” in public inscriptions. This time the complaint did not concern the names of streets in the Vilnius area. The complaint was about using the letters “WC,” referring to public toilets. The EFHR has validated its demands with the decision of the Constitutional Court, according to which using non-Lithuanian letters breaks the rules of the official language. Clearly, danger lurks everywhere. It seems that the issue concerning the spelling of surnames will be solved only after the regulation of marking municipal outdoor toilets.

Czesława Paczkowska

Source: http://l24.lt/pl/opinie-i-komentarze/item/13885-przerzucania-pilki-ciag-dalszy

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