AN APPEAL REGARDING THE SITUATION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES IN LITHUANIA
Dear Mrs President, we turn to you in response to the situation of national minorities in Lithuania which is getting worse. We believe that the President of the country cares for about all the citizens in the same way; that you are not indifferent and partial in the situation, when it gets towards the violation of the fundamental human rights and national minorities' rights. In our country, which is the member state of NATO and EU, citizens are being punished for the use of their native language in public life.
On 23rd December 2013, the Vilnius Regional Court with an adopted ruling imposed a huge fine of 43 400 litas (12 569 euro) on Mr Boleslav Daškevič, Director of the Administration of the Šalčininkai district self-government because Mr Daškevič failed to fulfil an obligation to remove bilingual street-name boards from some private buildings of Šalčininkai district within one month. It seems that the court ruling is purely political and this casts a shadow on our state's courts, as it is difficult to imagine such situation when a superior court increases a fine almost hundred times in the civilised world. It is regrettable that the fines are imposed for the use of their native language by national minorities in the district which is inhabited by autochthonic Polish national minority in 80 per cent. And all this is happening in the member state of the European Union. We can see that people suffer from repression and fundamental human rights are violated, including the right to use one's native language. This provocative court ruling, which does not have an analogue in the whole Europe, has already caused great dissatisfaction and protests which seem to only get stronger.
We stress that the national minorities living in Lithuania have never discredited and will not discredit in the future the significance of the state language, are eager to learn it, and, as it is shown by various testing, achieve good results when speaking about the state language. National minorities of Lithuania, which wield the state language both publicly and privately, had never questioned the fact that the Lithuanian language is the primary language in the country, according to Art. 14 of the Constitution of Lithuanian Republic.
Lithuanian citizens of different nationalities were fighting together for the freedom of Lithuania, they joined together the European Union as well as. We were always striving and we will continue to strive for the common interests of the State. Our common aim remains the welfare of the country and the future of the state where consensus does rule. National minorities, being aware of the importance of Lithuanian presidency of the EU Council, have not organized any pickets, rallies or protests because they did not want to make harm to the common goals in the face of challenges during the six-month presidency and did not want to get on towards a deterioration of the image of Lithuania.
On 14th January 2014, the European Parliament held a meeting during which the semi-annual Lithuanian presidency was summarised and discussed. During the meeting, you publicly deceived the international community and members of the European Parliament saying, that none of the international organizations' reports does mention that Lithuania violates minorities' rights. These words of the President were more than stunning to us, because they are far from truth, what is confirmed by the following reports of international organizations:
1. The report of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI): ECRI has expressed its concern about the abrogation of the praxis of the protection of national minorities, which was applied in Lithuania from 1989 till 2010. It is stressed in the report that majority of the national minorities' problems could be solved by the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities of the Council of Europe, which was ratified by Lithuania in 2000. ECRI encourages the Lithuanian authorities to adopt without further delay a Law on National Minorities which would clearly regulate the rights of national minorities;
2. The resolution of the Committee of Ministers of 2012 on the implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities by Lithuania with reference to linguistic rights, lack of legal regulation, strengthening of the system of consultations with representatives of minorities on issues affecting them: Resolution CM/ResCMN (2012) 19 on the implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities by Lithuania;
3. The report of the 'European Network Against Racism' (ENAR): note of the deteriorating situation of the Polish national minority in Lithuania;
4. The Alternative Report (February 2011) of the Human Rights Monitoring Institute in Vilnius (HRMI), based on the Fourth and Fifth Periodic Reports of Lithuania, which were based on the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), in which it is stressed that 'Lithuania is characterized by the low level of knowledge on human rights among policy makers, government officials, the judiciary, the media and the society in general. The state must develop effective institutional and legal framework in order to protect human rights in Lithuania';
5. The report of the Freedom House that speaks critically about the new Law on Education which was adopted in March 2011 and which in 2013 forced high school graduates to pass the Lithuanian language exam on the same level as their colleagues from Lithuanian schools;
6. The report of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Knut Vollebaek on the situation of national minorities in Lithuania from May 2012.
The reports clearly confirm the fact that situation of national minorities in Lithuania is getting worse. The previously provided reports suggest that Mrs President is not sufficiently informed about the problems of national minorities' protection. Noteworthy is also the fact that Mrs President is confusing a definition of national minorities' with the definition of migrants'. We do not want to believe that Mrs President was actually not informed about the remarks and suggestions of trustworthy international organizations, therefore, it is concluded that the international community and members of the European Parliament were deliberately misinformed, which in turn will negatively shadow the image of Lithuania as the EU member state. Despite active seeking and striving for a discussion, national minorities have not yet recognized your will ti start a dialogue, and yet only a conversation can solve all the problems.
20 years have passed since Treaty on friendly relations and neighbourly cooperation was signed by both Lithuania and Poland, which regulates rights of national minorities in both countries. It is regrettable that during these 20 years Lithuania has not complied with the basic commitments made under the agreement regarding the situation of national minorities and that it still lingers with its implementation.
Lithuania is a member of the international community, therefore, it should act in accordance with international standards and provide its citizens, regardless of their nationality, equal political, economic and social rights and freedoms, recognize their national identity, national culture, awake their national consciousness, but also reinforce their civic attitude. Mother tongue is a fundamental good of a human and of the whole nation.
We are looking forward to have a dialogue and we hope that you, Mrs President, will pay attention to the ensuing and ever worsening situation. In a democratic state minorities should regain the fundamental rights guaranteed by international instruments and established in practices in other EU member states.
Lithuanian Poles' Electoral Action Political Group
Rita Tamašunienė
Vanda Kravčionok
Zbignev Jedinskij
Michal Mackevič
Jaroslav Narkevič
Irina Rozova
Leonard Talmont
Juzef Kvetkovskij
2014-01-23