EFHR lecture for German students

On March 15 2014, the European Foundation of Human Rights (EFHR) organized a lecture about the situation of national minorities in Lithuania. The lecture was addressed to 20 students and 2 teachers from Chemnitz University of Technology in Germany. The students of the European study programme have a project about national minorities in Lithuania and they chose to meet with EFHR as it is the most active organization in this area in Lithuania, which perfectly tallies with their theme.

The lecture started with a brief presentation about EFHR activities related to national minorities, held by Edyta Urbanowicz. Then Ewelina Baliko, our legal assistant, gave a speech about the situation of national minorities in Lithuania. The main points covered were the problems related to national minorities in Lithuania, namely the lack of legal legislation and institutions protecting national minorities, the rights of national minorities in daily life and some specific cases related to national minorities. After this speech, EFHR intern Júlio Tavares gave a short presentation about the possibility of completing an internship at EFHR (more information).

The issue of national minorities generated a lot of interest, and many questions were asked. The students didn’t hide their surprise about the problems faced by national minorities in Lithuania, mainly the issue of the use of minority languages.

EFHR is glad that students from European countries are interested in the situation of national minorities in Lithuania and we would be honoured to provide such lectures in the future.

EFHR