Minority issues in Latvia, No. 30
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Subject: Minority issues in Latvia, No. 30
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Original sender: Aleksejs Dimitrovs <[email protected]>
Minority issues in Latvia, No. 30
Minority issues in Latvia, No. 30
Prepared by the Latvian Human Rights Committee (F.I.D.H.)
May 21, 2001
Next conference on integration of the society of Latvia
On May 11 the conference "Integration of the society: aspects,
opinions, perspectives" was held in Riga.
Representatives of different state institutions informed about their
activities in the field of integration. Some of the speakers did not
even scruple to speak about others' merit: for example, the Minister
of Culture Mrs Karina Petersone reported about the national minority
children festival "Zelta Kamolins" ("The Golden Clew"), despite the
state refused to financially support it. Participants of the
conference also expressed different opinions about the integration
results. In particular, the head of the Board on Religious Affairs of
the Ministry of Justice, Mr Ringolds Balodis expressed his concern
with regard to the statistics of the Naturalisation Board. In Mr
Balodis' view, the number of naturalisations cannot be regarded as the
indicator of the integration success, because "disloyal non-citizens
also can naturalise".
The Russian-speaking minority was represented in the discussion only
by writer Mrs Marina Kosteneckaya and president of the largest brewery
"Aldaris" Mr Vitaly Gavrilov, both well-known with their completely
pro-government position in the sphere of ethnic relations. Only few
MPs from the pro-minority faction "For Human Rights in United Latvia",
and one representative of the Russian-speaking rights NGOs, received
invitations to visit the conference. None of them was invited to
deliver a presentation or to take part in panel discussions.
Thus, we have to conclude that the conference was held only to
demonstrate to international organisations and foreign states that the
process of society integration in Latvia is successful. Mr Nils
Muizhnieks, director of the Latvian Centre for Human Rights and Ethnic
Studies, told at the conference, "We are speaking about the
integration for three years. But the society becomes neither more
civil, nor more integrated. Therefore I suggest: that�s enough with
conferences!". Indeed, no serious problem was discussed during the
conference. The society of Latvia needs real activities in the field
of integration, where not only state, but also NGOs and persons
belonging to national minorities participate (for more information,
see newspaper "Chas" ("The Hour"), May 12,
http://www.chas-daily.com/win/2001/05/12/l_30.html)
Attitude to different languages in the Riga City Council
On May 12, the leading Latvian-language daily "Diena" ("The Day")
published interesting information about how the Riga City Council
treats incoming mail in different languages. According to the
newspaper, the mail board of the Riga City Council does not register
letters in Russian and send them back with request to write in the
state (i.e. Latvian) language. Heads of the Council's committees can
consider applications or complaints written in foreign languages, but
in this case they must register these letters themselves. However,
letters written in English, German or French are translated by the
Council's translators. Yet, there are no translators from Russian
among the Council's staff.
Apparently, it is difficult to find translators from Russian in Riga,
where 43,8% of the residents are ethnic Russians (data of the 2000
Population Census, http://www.csb.lv/Pres/census6.htm) and even more
people indicate Russian as their native language...
Russian schools in different cities of Latvia - to be or not to be?
After the municipal elections held in March the newly elected city
councils started discussing questions connected with educational
institutions. Because of the demographic crisis of early 90s, many
schools are now "underpopulated", and the question of "optimisation of
the school network" is high on the agenda of many municipalities. The
future of the schools with the Russian language of instruction is
particularly sensitive, since in the past some municipalities chose to
close viable Russian-language schools out of political considerations.
The birthrate among the Russian-speakers dropped more substantially
than among ethnic Latvians, besides, some - though not many - Russian
parents chose to send their children to the Latvian-language schools.
Thus, schools with the Russian language of instruction are getting
empty faster than the Latvian-language ones. According to the
legislation of Latvia, the issues of foundation, reorganisation and
liquidation of schools are in the competence of municipal authorities.
City councils in different towns of Latvia now consider possible
closing of some Russian-language schools. For example, it was planned
to close the Russian secondary school No. 17 in Riga. However, the
newly elected City Council decided only that this school must share
its building with the Latvian-language school "Ridze", since the
number of students is not sufficient to occupy the whole building.
This decision was taken owing to the active position of the
pro-minority faction "For Human Rights in United Latvia" (the
newspaper "Vesti Segodnya" ("The News Today"), May 10,
http://www.cm.lv/index.php3?br=$br&g=2001&m=05&d=10&w1=r&r=1&w2=p&pub=024#banner
)
The municipality of Yelgava (one of the biggest Latvia's cities) also
will decide the future of the Russian-language elementary school No.1.
A few options were suggested for reorganisation or even liquidation of
the school. In any case, the school will not stay in the present
excellent school building, which is to be transferred to a
Latvian-language school. On May 11 the schoolchildren�s parents held a
picket with the aim to influence upon the City Council's decision.
They are also ready to protect their interests in court (the newspaper
"Vesti Segodnya" ("The News Today"), May 14,
http://www.cm.lv/index.php3?br=$br&g=2001&m=05&d=14&w1=r&r=5&w2=p&pub=020#banner).
The situation with the Russian-language school No.2 in Valmiera town
is most revealing. Unlike many other towns in Latvia, Valmiera is
populated overwhelmingly by ethnic Latvians, and practically all
Russians living there speak fluent Latvian. 20% of the students, as
well as the school principal, are ethnic Latvians. Nevertheless,
parents of the students strongly protest against the envisaged
elimination of state-supported secondary education in minority
languages. They sent a petition to the main newspapers of Latvia, to
the parliament, the Ministry of Education, as well as to the OSCE and
the European Union. The teachers fully support the parents' attitude.
Their main concerns are caused by the considerable deterioration of
the quality of the students' knowledge in practically all subjects
after the introduction of the bilingual education ("The News Today"),
May 9,
http://www.cm.lv/index.php3?br=$br&g=2001&m=05&d=09&w1=r&r=5&w2=p&pub=034#banner).
"Vesti Segodnya" campaign: free advertising for Russian signboards
The most popular Russian-language daily in Latvia "Vesti Segodnya"
("The News Today") continues an interesting action. It offers free
advertising to enterprises which display information on signboards in
the languages of national minorities. The new language legislation of
Latvia which came into force on September 1, 2000, unlike the previous
Law on Languages, does not prohibit the use of other languages along
with Latvian in public information provided by private persons or
institutions. However, many private companies are still reluctant to
use other languages because of a sort of "inertia fear". The daily's
campaign is aimed at encouraging private entrepreneurs to make use of
the rights provided by law.
Some politicians and state officials sharply criticize this action
(for example, MP from the People's Party Mr Dzintars Abikis, and Head
of the State Language Centre Mrs Dzintra Hirsha). They do not deny
that the action complies with the State Language Law, but maintain
that it is "a sign of disloyalty" and "can hinder the integration of
the society".
Alexei Dimitrov
Latvian Human Rights Committee (F.I.D.H.)
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