National Minorities

The Regulations of the Ministry of Culture indicate the coordination of implementation of State policy in the field of national minorities as one of the objectives of the Ministry of Culture. With a view to achieving this goal, the Ministry of Culture, within its competence, prepares the drafts laws, Government resolutions and other legal acts, as well as coordinates the drafting and implementation of long-term programmes aimed at assisting the people belonging to national minorities to resolve the problems of safeguarding their culture and identity.

Legal regulation

The Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania (Art. 37 and 45) regulates the rights of people belonging to national minorities.

The protection of rights and freedoms of national minorities and the people belonging thereto forms an integral part of the international protection of human rights and falls within the ambit of the field of international cooperation. The Republic of Lithuania has ratified the key international agreements regulating the rights of national minorities.

The agreements of the United Nations:

- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights;

- The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;

- The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination;

- The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women;

- The Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The conventions of the Council of Europe:

- The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms;

- On 1 February 1995, the Republic of Lithuania signed the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities of the Council of Europe, followed by ratification thereof without any reservations on 17 February 2000.

The Republic of Lithuania Law on Associations and the Republic of Lithuania Law on Charity and Sponsorship guarantees the freedom of association and the right to receive sponsorship for the people belonging to national minorities.

The Laws on Citizenship, on the State Language, on Education, on Provision of Information to the Public, on Religious Communities and Associations, on Political Parties and Political Organisations, on the Fundamentals of Protection of the Rights of the Child, and other legal acts guarantee and regulate protection of the rights of people belonging to national minorities.

With a view to achieving the objective in coordination of the State policy in the field of national minorities as specified in the Regulations, the Ministry of Culture is implementing the Strategy for Development until 2015 of the National Minorities Policy and the Action Plan for Integration of the Roma community into the Lithuanian society for 2012–2014.

When implementing paragraph 1180 of the Implementation Measures of the Programme of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania for 2008-2012, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania drafts the concept of the Republic of Lithuania Law on National Minorities.

National minorities in Lithuania

National minorities are an integral part of our society, connected with Lithuania by long-term historical and cultural ties. Throughout the centuries, national communities have played an important role: they contributed to creating the state of Lithuania and defending its freedom and independence. During the movement, representatives of 26 national communities approved the national declaration, the purpose of which is to show that national minorities support the aspirations of Lithuanian Independence. Citizens of all nationalities living in Lithuania joined the national revival movement: they supported the referendum on the withdrawal of the Soviet army from Lithuania, stood on the Baltic road, defended the country's independence in 1991 the January events and during the August putsch.

Statistics

Based on the 2021 of the Republic of Lithuania by the results of the general population and housing census, 2021 2 million 810 thousand people lived in Lithuania of which 432 thousand are representatives of national minorities.

Population by nationality in 2001, 2011 and 2021

Nationality

2001

2011

2021

Altogether

3 483 971

3 043 429

2 810 761

Lithuanians

2 907 293

2 516 314

2 378 118

Poles

234 989

200 317

183 421

Russians

219 789

176 913

141 122

Belarusians

42 866

36 277

28 183

Ukrainians

22 488

16 423

14 168

Jews

4 007

3 050

2 256

Tatars

3 235

2 793

2 142

Germans

3 243

2 418

1 977

Romes

2 571

2 115

2 251

Latvians

2 955

2 025

1 572

Armenians

1 277

1 233

1 125

Azerbaijanis

788

648

575

Moldovans

704

540

451

Georgians

437

372

333

Estonians

419

314

233

Karaites

273

241

192

Other nationalities

3 517

3 508

3 009

Unspecified

32 921

32 978

49 633

*Data of the Department of Statistics under the Government of the Republic of Lithuania

The largest communities

Poles (183.4 thousand, 6.5 percent);

Russians (141.1 thousand, 5 percent);

Belarusians (28.1 thousand, 1 percent);

Ukrainians (14.1 thousand, 0.5 percent);

Other nationalities (16.1 thousand, 0.6 percent).

Most of the Poles live in:

Šalčininkai (76.3 percent),

Vilnius (46.8 percent),

Trakai (27.5 percent) and

Švenčionys (24.3 percent) District Municipality

Most of the Russians live in:

Visaginas (47.36 percent),

Zarasai District (17.18 percent),

Klaipėda District (16 percent) and

Švenčionys District (12.34 percent) Municipality.

Approximately 300 non-governmental organisations of national minorities are engaged in an active cultural activity in Lithuania. The Armenian, Azerbaijani, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Chechen, Estonian, Greek, Karaits, Latvian, Polish, Roma, Romanian, Russian, Tatar, Ukrainian, Uzbek, Hungarian, German, Jewish, and other national minority communities have established non-governmental organisations. These are cultural, educational, professional, and other organisations. The State budget finances their educational and cultural projects.

Seeking to satisfy cultural and educational needs of the Lithuanian national minorities, social activity centres of national minorities were established. These are the House of National Communities in Vilnius (established in 1991), the Kaunas Cultural Centre of Various Nations (2004), the Roma Community Centre (2001), and the Folklore and Ethnography Centre of the Lithuanian National Minorities (2007).

Education

The laws of the Republic of Lithuania guarantee the national minorities residing in Lithuania the right to State or State-supported pre-school institutions, general education schools and classes in their native language. If the national groups are small and constitute a minority of the population in the area, classes and optional courses as well as Saturday/Sunday schools can be established in State general education schools with a view to enable the people belonging to the national minorities to learn and improve their native language.

The schools with national minorities’ language as the language of instruction operate in the areas inhabited by large national minorities’ population. According to the data estimates of 2016-2017, there were 108 schools in Lithuania with one or several national minority/foreign languages of instruction. From them there were 52 schools with Polish as the language of instruction, 30 schools with Russian language of instruction, 1 – Belarusian, 9 Lithuanian and Polish, 12 Lithuanian and Russian, 7 Russian and Polish, and 7 with Lithuanian, Russian and Polish languages of instruction.

If the national minorities constitute a small minority group in the area, supplementary education may be organised and Saturday/Sunday schools can be established, with a view to enabling the people belonging to the national minorities to learn and improve their native language. Currently, there are approximately 39 Saturday/Sunday schools established by the Armenians, Azerbaijani, Belarusians, Estonians, Greeks, Karaits, Kazakhstani, Poles, Roma, Russian, Tatars, Ukrainians, Uzbek, Germans, and the Jews residing in Lithuania. People belonging to national minorities learn their native language and become familiar with their national culture and traditions, history and cultural heritage in these schools.

Media

Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT) airs information in national minorities’ language – Russian, Belarusian, Polish, Yiddish, and Ukrainian.

There are periodicals and magazines in Russian, Polish, and Yiddish published in the country. The Lithuanian Tatar community is publishing the newspaper Lietuvos totoriai (Lithuanian Tatars) in Lithuanian, Russian, and Polish.

Lithuanian Poles can read in Polish the Kurier Wileński daily (The Vilnius Courier) (http://kurierwilenski.lt), the Tygodnik Wileńszczyzny weekly (The Vilnius Region Weekly), monthly magazine Magazyn Wileński (Vilnius Magazine), and quarterly Znad Wilii. Since 2003, The Nasza Gazeta (The Our Newspaper) is a supplement of The Tygodnik Wileńszczyzny.

There are Polish radio stations in Lithuania: ZNAD WILII (since the 1st of July 1992), the Internet radio ZW FUN (since the 17th of February 2016) and RADIO WILNO (since the 3rd of April 2016).

Polish national minority have access to internet portals www.zw.lt, www.l24.lt, www.wilnoteka.lt, and www.pogon.lt.

There are five national Russian-language weekly newspapers in Lithuania: Литовский курьер (the Lithuanian Courier) www.kurier.lt, Экспресс неделя (the Express Weekly) www.nedelia.lt, Обзор (the Review) www.obzor.lt, and Республика (the Republic). Newspapers in Russian Sugardas and В каждый дом (To Every House) are published in Visaginas. As of 2008, information in Russian was available on the Internet portal http://ru.delfi.lt.

The House of National Communities in Vilnius issues bulletin Tautinių bendrijų naujienos (The News Of National Minorities) which is dedicated to all the national minorities residing in Lithuania.

Last updated: 23-11-2023