2010 ruling: Lithuanian Supreme Court says word “negras” is not inherently derogatory

Lithuania’s Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that the word negras in Lithuanian does not carry a derogatory meaning, though it questioned whether that interpretation applies to contemporary usage.

The ruling came in a criminal case involving a woman convicted of assaulting a Black woman in Vilnius in 2008. During the attack, the defendant used the word negras to refer to the victim. Lower courts found the defendant guilty of disorderly conduct, contempt of public order, and incitement to hatred based on race.

The defendant and her lawyer appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that calling someone a negras was not an act of racial contempt but merely a personal insult. The Supreme Court rejected the appeal and upheld the lower courts’ verdicts. However, it issued a clarification on the meaning of the word negras in Lithuanian.

According to the 2010 ruling, the term negras has no derogatory or humiliating connotation in Lithuanian because Lithuania did not historically use African people for forced labour, did not have legalised discrimination or segregation, and did not experience social conflict based on skin colour. The court noted that racial minorities were rarely present in Lithuania, so depictions of negras in Lithuanian culture, literature, and art were typically indirect and derived from foreign sources, often portraying the figure as exploited or in need of sympathy.

The Supreme Court also distinguished between the Lithuanian word negras and the English word nigger, which carries a strong negative meaning in English-speaking countries. The defendant had used the English-derived insult in the attack.

A court spokesperson told ELTA that while the 2010 clarification remains legally valid, its relevance to modern contexts is questionable.