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The bill seeks to guarantee more effective legal protection of names and surnames as the main identifiers of a person, as well as the right to a common family surname. The aim is also to create legal preconditions for writing non-Lithuanian Republic of Lithuania and foreign names and surnames in non-Lithuanian Latin characters on documents.
“The main motivation for this bill is that there is increasing legal uncertainty and, at the same time, citizens experience serious administrative, professional and personal inconvenience due to the spelling of their names in official documents of the Republic of Lithuania, Although the Constitutional Court and the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language have recommended the representatives of the social democratic fraction of the Seimas – Algirdas Sysas, the eldest of this fraction, Julius Sabatauskas, the vice president of the Seimas, Gintautas Paluckas, the party leader, Linas Jonauskas, Tomas Bičiūnas, and Orinta Leiputė, members of the Seimas, comment on their initiative.
The principle enshrined in the bill is that names and surnames are written in Lithuanian characters, the surnames of foreigners, if they are of Latin origin, are transcribed in characters of Latin origin, if they are not in characters of Latin origin, they are transcribed in Lithuanian transcription.
Furthermore, representatives of Lithuanian national minorities could, upon request, rewrite their names in Latin characters in accordance with the linguistic norms of that national minority.
According to the drafters, the bill introduces a category of foreigners, which includes foreign citizens and stateless persons. Assuming that a person’s first and last name are a sign of a person’s identity, the first and last names of foreigners whose source of the original document is written in Latin characters would be noted on identity documents and marital status laws.
The names and surnames of the persons entered in the document sources in non-Latin characters in the identity documents in accordance with the proposed regulation would be transcribed in Lithuanian characters in accordance with the Rules for the writing of names and surnames approved by the Government. In cases where the document source contains first and last name entries and in Latin and non-Latin characters, it is suggested to write the entries in Latin characters in the identity documents. At the request of a person, all records of the source of the documents could be canceled in Lithuanian characters or in Lithuanian form. The proposed legal regulation would also apply to people’s spouses and their children.
It is proposed that the name and surname of a person entered in the identity documents and other documents of the Republic of Lithuania issued before the entry into force of this Law be rewritten at the request of the person in accordance with the procedure established by this law.
If the Seimas adopts the proposed law, the Government should prepare and approve the Rules for writing names and surnames.
“A personal name is a unique identifier of a particular person in relation to personal and family life; therefore, in some countries, changing the entries of the legal entity’s name in another person’s documents may not only violate the human rights, but it can also make it difficult for a person to migrate from one state to another for academic, work or personal reasons; there may be additional problems in proving a person’s identity, ”says the document’s explanatory note.
It notes that representatives of the national minorities living in Lithuania have the long-term expectation of being able to write the names of their Latin alphabet in their mother tongue.
Currently in force in 1991. January 31 Resolution of the Supreme Council – Seimas de Restauración “On the writing of names and surnames in the passport of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania”.
This resolution does not foresee a situation in which citizens of the Republic of Lithuania acquire surnames in a non-Lithuanian way, as well as the possibility to write the surnames of those persons at their choice in the Lithuanian spelling or other Latin characters.
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