Citizenship of the republic of Lithuania

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Žmogaus teisės; Pilietybė; Human rights; Citizenship.

ENThe legal status of an individual in the state depends on the group of individuals she/he belongs to: citizens of the state, citizens of foreign state, stateless persons, persons having double nationality, refugees, compulsory resettled persons or other. The legal status of each group is specified by international and national legal acts. Most of the rights belong to citizens of the state. Only citizens exercise all the rights and liberties established in the state constitution and other legal acts. According to the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania only citizens have the right to participate in the governance of the state both directly and through their democratically elected representatives; the right to propose a Constitutional amendment; the right to elect and be elected to the Seimas; the right to elect and be elected the President of the Republic of Lithuania; the right to be judges; the right to enter on equal terms in the State service; the right to request announcement of a referendum; the right of legislative initiative; the right to freely join political parties. The Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania and other legal acts provide other rights and liberties belonging only to the citizens of the Republic of Lithuania. Otherwise, only the citizens of the Republic have certain constitutional duties: the duty of the defence of the State of Lithuania against the foreign armed attack; the duty to perform military or alternative national defence service. In accordance with the international law, a person who has dual nationality is treated by each state as holding its citizenship only. That means such a person has all the rights and duties provided under the constitutional law of the each state which citizenship he holds. [Extract, p. 66]