Poland`s Sejm votes to allow Belarusian to be used in local public offices as additional language
Published:
12 January 2005 y., Wednesday
Poland`s Sejm (lower chamber of the national parliament) has passed an amendment providing that ethnic Belarusians residing in the country may use Belarusian in local public offices. As the Belarusian Service of RFE/RL reported, the amendment stipulates that local governmental agencies may use Belarusian as an "additional language" provided the Belarusian national minority accounts for 20 percent of the territorial unit`s population. An original version of the amendment set the percentage at 50 percent.
The Sejm voted that numbers of people belonging to the Belarusian minority would be determined on the basis of the most recent population census conducted in Poland in 2002.
Belarusians are the second largest national minority in Poland after Germans. According to Polish official sources, in the 2002 census, 47,640 citizens of Poland declared themselves Belarusians. Of them, 46,041 resided in the Podlaskie province. The Belarusian minority is represented in the 460-seat Sejm by MPs Eugeniusz Czykwin, Aleksander Czuz and Sergiusz Plewa. The Belarusian language is reportedly taught to 3,664 children in 40 public schools.
Most of Poland`s Belarusians are members of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church.
Šaltinis:
Charter`97 Press Center
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
Until recently, the French assumed they had solved the issue of gays and marriage in a most civilized manner
more »
The book is expected to sell millions of copies worldwide
more »
An architect specializing in hypermarket design has angered some clerics in Poland, an almost exclusively Roman Catholic country, but won support from others with an idea to put chapels in shopping malls
more »
Panel overturns parliamentary vote against impeached leader
more »
Thousands of demonstrators gathered on the streets of Lodz on Monday to protest against the shooting deaths of two people
more »
In many countries, "e-government" is more political rhetoric than hard reality
more »
Prague city centre looks like a mini-european union this Friday
more »
Protests against European economic summit draw about 3,000 in Poland
more »
The Czech government took a first step towards legalising prostitution on Wednesday when cabinet approved a proposal to license sex trade workers
more »
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld yesterday said the Pentagon was not considering a return of the military draft
more »