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On Wednesday, the government approved the conclusion of the Ministry of Justice, which proposes to allow the letters “q”, “x” and “w” in the documents of the main page of the passport for people married to a foreigner and representatives of national minorities.
The Cabinet of Ministers proposes to reject the alternative draft, which provides for the original spelling of surnames on the additional page of the passport.
The arguments of the Ministry of Justice to legalize the original spelling of personal names in the Latin alphabet according to the rules of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) were presented to the BNS by the Minister of Justice E. Dobrovolska in an interview .
– The debate over the original spelling of personal names has been going on for decades, but no decision has been made so far. To what extent is the writing of Latin letters on personal documents really relevant for Lithuanian citizens? Would many of them be directly affected by the proposed legal regulation?
– Today, we are basically punishing our citizens in the process, because Lithuania does not have the political will to establish legal regulation. This is often the most relevant problem for Lithuanians who marry foreigners or their children, as they often have dual citizenship. In this case, surnames can only be written in their original form, with “w”, “q” or “x”. Today, all these couples, both spouses married to foreigners and with children, go to the Civil Registry with a negative answer and go to court, and the courts have already established an unequivocal practice that practically all spouses and children they can enter original surnames. or names and passports issued with the corresponding entries on the main page.
In principle, the problem is clear, the solution is clear, jurisprudence is formed, it is very important to note that the State Language Commission is always involved in those cases, it always gives its conclusion that mixed families can be exempted from spelling of the surnames. . Therefore, Lithuania simply punishes people through litigation, wasting its budget, charging the courts with cases where there are essentially no disputes.
– It agrees with the original spelling of personal names on the main page of the passport. Why are you proposing this particular option and not as a proposed compromise project with an additional passport page entry?
– The conclusion of the Government is to reject the project, which provides for the original spelling of personal names on the second page, since it is clear that such a decision does not meet the expectations of our citizens or the legal system, as such a name on the page Following would be unofficial and misleading, than with the surname used in other documents and would create a dual identity accordingly.
The government’s finding supports a bill that spells names on the front page, based on case law that several hundred people have already gone to court and received those documents. From the Population Registry, we see that several hundred already have valid passports with a “w”, “q” or “x”.
– According to your proposed option, who could claim the original spelling of the personal name in the documents and for what reasons?
– The government agreed that mixed families, that is, Lithuanians married to a foreigner or their children, could exercise this right, and one of the proposals was to take into account the need for national minorities to write personal names in the original language.
One of the safeguards is the nationality interface in the Population Register. In principle, only a person with non-Lithuanian nationality would have such an opportunity in the Population Register. We hear such fears that “I will go up and be Spanish”; This is impossible, because today a Lithuanian citizen can choose a nationality only from his parents, in other words, if my mother and father are both Lithuanians, I cannot choose a Nationality other than my parents in the population register. There are also unfounded fears that we will have to write in Cyrillic or have many different accents. What does the government’s conclusion say? That we are talking about a Latin alphabet without diacritical marks.
– Will Lithuania face legal consequences if the current regulation is maintained? that is, wouldn’t the original spelling of surnames be legalized?
– There are many similar cases in the European Court of Human Rights related to first and last names, but if we are talking about cases related to first and last names against Lithuania, there is one and there is still a pending decision.
But Lithuania’s decision is necessary in the near future, because people now go to court and, for example, even if a wife married to a foreigner wins the case and enters a surname with “w”, she has to start everything. the process. again. Registration department, to court for the child’s last name. Basically, we charge the courts and punish our citizens with a process that should not take place in Lithuania.
I have personally had to represent in several cases where children have dual nationality, such as French and Lithuanian, and personally I have seen cases where a child has a Lithuanian version that is radically different from the French version and a brother only He has a French passport and another last name. In this way, we create such an interesting situation, when even traveling, it is almost impossible to prove the identity of the members of that family, only with additional documents.
It must be understood that this problem is the problem of our citizens, the most relevant for Lithuanians married to foreign citizens, who are the most affected today because they are involved in legal processes.
– Thanks for the conversation.
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According to the Ministry of Justice, there are currently 384 Lithuanian citizens registered in the Population Register who have valid identity documents, an identity card or a passport, with personal names containing the letters “q”, “x” or ” w “.
During the 2019-2021 period, 149 judicial decisions were issued that forced the civil registry offices to enter personal names with “q”, “x” or “w” in the records of civil status records.
To the knowledge of the Ministry, the Civil Registry did not receive civil decisions during the period in question, which would refuse to give people personal names with “q”, “x” and “w”.
The discussion about the legalization of the original spelling of personal names in documents has been going on in Lithuania for several decades, but no laws have been adopted in this regard so far.
Proponents of the original spelling of surnames argue for a person’s right to their personal name, critics claim that allowing non-Lithuanian characters in documents will lower the status of the Lithuanian state language. The latter suggest that the name be written in Latin characters only on an additional page of the document.
Until now, foreigners and their spouses who want original names on passports and identity cards must defend this position in court at all times, and the courts have so far made decisions in their favor.
