Courts’ challange to the newly elected Seimas – ‘x’ and ‘w’

On 10 October 2016, the Vilnius Courts posed challenge to the newly elected Seimas repeatedly acknowledging the right to privacy, free movement of persons and original spelling of names and surnames.

Upon the hearing the case of the great-great grandson of Adam Mickiewicz, the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court decided to annul the decision of the Migration Board to refuse the issuing the passport for the minor Alexia Gorecki-Mickiewicz and obliged to issue a new one following the original spelling of her name and surname. Alexia has been already living in Lithuania for eleven years and she is identified by her original name and surname in all registers, schools, health institutions. It should be noted that when she was born, the Lithuania issued her both the Lithuanian Birth Certificate and the passport with ‘x and ‘w’ without the least complexity. But upon the expiry of the passport, Lithuania decided to change it’s mind and refuse the issuing a new passport until the child does not amend the name and surname. While the passing the judgement, the Court heard the case followed the explanations of the Lithuanian Constitutional Court, European Court of Human Rights and UN Commission on Human Rights. The Vilnius Regional Administrative Court stated that the restriction applied for the applicants’ daughter by refusing to entry her name and surname with ‘x’ and ‘w’ into the passport of the citizen of the Republic of Lithuania in-proportionally infringes the rights and lawful expectations of the applicants and their family. Furthermore, upon the determination that the same Latin letters are used in names and surnames of other persons registered in Lithuania when they raise presumptions for discrimination under the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights.

Meanwhile, upon the hearing of the case related to the ‘Ouwens’ surname, the Vilnius County Court obliged the Civil Registry Office to entry this surname with ‘w’ both into the Marriage Certificate of the Lithuanian who has got married with the citizen of the Netherlands and into the Birth Certificate of their child. The Court assesses that the prohibition to entry the surname with ‘w’ is in-proportional inconvenience which should be sustained by the applicant and her son if the Marriage Certificate and Birth Certificate were refused to issue with the assumed husband’s surname entered by ‘w’. The prohibition to record the assumed husband’s surname with ‘w’ should also raise the presumption for the infringement of the principle of the inviolability of private and family life, the right to a name and surname.

The European Foundation of Human Rights (EFHR) currently is conducting 23 cases related to the original spelling of names and surnames. All applying spouses are forced individually to defend their rights in a court. The Assistant of the Attorney-at-law representing the applicants Evelina Baliko states that these courts’ judgements (seven cases has been won till now)  unambiguously reflect the direction of a new legal regulation allowing to apply the original spelling of names and surnames using the letters of the Latin alphabet on a front page of a passport. In such case, both the European regulation and international law should be followed.

EFHR