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.