• June 17, 2015
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The Seimas Committee supports the original spelling of names

On Wednesday, The Seimas Law and Order Committee  approved of the project according to which in identity documents first and last names of Lithuanian citizens may be written using the letters of the Latin alphabet which do not exist in the Lithuanian alphabet. The proposal of the original spelling of names on the subsequent pages of passports has been rejected.

The committee voted on a couple of proposals presented by the conservative Valentinas Stundys along with a few other MPs. All of the projects have been rejected.

After the committee’s session, it was decided to point out in the project of the Law on spelling names that „at the request of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania, the citizen’s first and last name is written using the symbols of the Latin alphabet, if they are written that way in the source document.”

Meanwhile, the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language did not approve of a universal and original spelling of names. According to the commission, only foreigners who received Lithuanian citizenship, their spouses and children have the right to write their first or last name using the letters which do not exist in the Lithuanian alphabet, while this right does not concern the representatives of national minorities living in Lithuania.

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

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