Her surname was Lithuanianed. The Court did not notice that it’s an act of discrimination

The Community Court of Vilnius dropped the non-Lithuanian’s lawsuit against making her surname Lithuanianed. The woman stated that the ending –inne was added to her surname after she had got married. What is more, she says that it is an act of discrimination, it threatens her dignity as a human being and makes problems in everyday life.

The woman asked for leaving the male form of her surname with the ending –is. Additionally, the applicant showed that she and her husband are not Lithuanian. After the register office refused to change the woman’s surname, she decided to go to the court.

National Committee of Lithuanian Language, which was a party at the trail, stated that according to a legal rule, if a husband’s surname has an ending –ulis, it gives a wife an opportunity to take a surname with an ending – ulytė (maiden name), -ulienė (married name) or – ule ( without mentioning the marital status of a woman).

The committee emphasized that according to legal rules, Lithuania citizens who are Polish, Belorussian, Ukrainian, etc. can change their surnames, so as they don’t have any endings (The committee provided examples as follows: Baciul, Katiul, Paliul, Kisel, Kurmel, Narkun, Voitkun).

The Court found that a process of adding a Lithuanian ending to a surname is not an act of discrimination and as a result the lawsuit was dropped. Furthermore, the Court does not see any aims to go to either The Constitutional Court of Lithuanian Republic or The Judicatory of European Union.

On the basis of the information from National Committee of Lithuanian Language

Source: http://l24.lt/pl/prawo/item/22892-zlituanizowano-jej-nazwisko-sad-nie-dopatrzyl-sie-aktu-dyskryminacji

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