National minorities have a long history of living in Lithuania. The largest minority groups are Polish, Russian, Belarussian and Ukrainian. Such groups are ethnically, culturally and linguistically distinct groups of people, different to the dominant majority of the country’s population. They are protected by the minority status granted to them by the authorities and aim to preserve their authenticity. The rights of national minorities in Lithuania are enshrined in the country’s Constitution, which guarantees the right to nurture one’s language, culture and customs, the principle of equality. The right to foster one’s language, culture and customs was previously enshrined in the Ethnic Minorities Law (1989). Since 2010 the status of ethnic minorities in Lithuania has been regulated by international legislation. _x000D_
Rather than focusing on the size of a specific national minority, research usually centres around the social status of its members, especially the way they feel within the society. The aim of this research is to discuss the situation of Lithuania’s national minorities as well as analysing some of the historical and contemporary aspects of standardising Lithuanian place names; to overview the administration and governance policies applied to national minorities._x000D_
Political, economic, social and cultural integration of national minorities is conducted on three levels: micro, mezzo, and macro._x000D_
Lithuania puts every effort to preserve its tangible and intangible national heritage which includes the heritage of all the national minorities in the country._x000D_

Baranauskienė, Rita; Mickienė, Ilona
Assoc. prof. of Vilnius University Kaunas Faculty
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