Permanent Mission of Lithuania Chair, since I wasn’t given the floor yesterday under Item 2, I’d like come back a little bit on that topic and share a few examples from Lithuania on our national policies that create more inclusive and empowered society. Lithuania remains fully committed to the principles of the declaration on the rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic religious and linguistic minorities. Lithuanian constitution and laws prohibit direct or indirect discrimination on any ground and guarantee equal opportunities of participation to members of all minorities in cultural, social, and economic life, as well as public affairs. For example, all Lithuanian citizens are allowed to write their names and surnames in personal documents in the original form using all characters of the Latin alphabet. After Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine we developed adaptive curricula to ensure integration of Ukrainian refugee children and youth into Lithuanian society while maintaining their connections to Ukrainian language, education, and culture. Also education in Belorussian language and support for multilingualism is ensured in [inaudible] Gymnamsium. We significantly increased the funding for capacity building of media in minority languages including in Russian and Belorussia. Unfortunately, in Belarus and Russia Lithuanian communities are being liquidated local schools of Lithuanian minorities Funded by our government are closed or forced to change the language of instruction. We urge respective authorities to recognize the educational and linguistic rights of persons belonging to Lithuanian and other minorities there. For the more Russia attempts to justify its war of aggression against Ukraine based on disinformation and false narrative about the need to defend compatriots and national minorities, we urge every state to identify reject and condemn distorted narratives and accusations and instead take real measures to protect and promote the rights of persons belonging to minorities.

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