Work on national minorities act to be completed soon?

After the meeting with representatives of national minorities PM Algirdas Butkevičius declared that draft of a new act on national minorities will be corrected.

‘We have decided that works on the draft of new national minorities act will be completed soon. Prepared draft will be a basis for future discussions,’ said the Prime Minister. During the meeting representatives of national minorities presented their claims and ideas for the project to the PM.

Earlier the Deputy Chancellor of the Government Remigijus Motuzas had said to BNS that the PM will want to clarify if there really is a need for a separate law, because Lithuania is a member of EU and rights of its citizens are protected by other legal acts.

Edward Trusewicz does not agree with this approach.

‘We have a certain conflict, or an absurdity, because not everything is clarified when it comes to legal regulations. There is no law that would give details to article 11^th, paragraph 3^rd of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. Every country has a right to define how it will realize establishments of the convention,’ said the Deputy Minister of Culture Edward Trusewicz, who led the working group responsible for preparing the draft, to ‘Znad Wilii’ Radio.

Draft of the new act on national minorities includes bilingual street and city names and a supporting language in regions densely inhabited by national minorities.

Source: http://zw.lt/litwa/prace-nad-ustawa-o-mniejszosciach-narodowych-beda-zakonczone-w-najblizszym-czasie/

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.