A member of Parliament from Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania talks about human rigths in Lithuania

A member of Parliament from Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania, the Chairman of the Committee on Human Rights Leonard Talmont discussed the situation of human right and especially minority rights with the Chief of Azerbaijan Institute for Democracy and Human Rights Ahmad Shahidov who paid a visit to Vilnius.

At the meeting with the guest, the member of Parliament from Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania Leonard Talmont said that Lithuania is a multicultural and multinational country and Polish minority is the biggest minority in this country. The Chairman of the Committee on Human Rights was talking about the life conditions and successes of national minorities in Lithuania and he emphasised that in Lithuanian Parliament, the fraction of Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania that consists of 8 people has been created. He also said that many councilors from national minorities are elected to local governments on areas where the majority of inhabitants are people of national minorities.

Leonard Talmont said that among the problems that national minorities face in Lithuania, including Polish minority, there are the lack of the act on national minorities, the lack of the possibility of writing one’s name in the original form and the ban on using bilingual signs with the names of streets and towns on territories inhabited by many non-Lithuanian people.

„In the conversation with the guest from Azerbaijan, I told him what problems are encountered by national minorities living in our country. I said that the members of Parliament from Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania strive for solving those problems. Those problems are the reason for which national communities organise the pickets which are the expression of dissatisfaction with problems that should be solved,” said the member of Parliament from Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania Leonard Talmont and he added that he also mentioned more positive aspects of the functioning of a minority in the country, among others he described successes of national communities, mainly Polish minority.

Azerbaijan Institute for Democracy and Human Rights has started to function recently: it was founded this year.

The Chairman of the Committee on Human Rights Leonard Talmont and Ahmad Shahidov also talked about other fields of activity of the Committee on Human Rights: issues connected with the legal status of foreigners, refugees, children rights, consumer rights, equal rights and the rights of detained and imprisoned people.