Conference in Riga

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From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 17:33:28 +0300 (EET DST)
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Subject: Conference in Riga

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

Original sender: Dimitrijs Alehins <[email protected]>

Conference in Riga


Dear colleagues,
 
this is concerning a conference held in Riga 11-12 June under title
"Towards Civil Society" that is the name of a broad scale survey done
by the Naturalisation Board. As you understand, the emphasis is put on
the inter-ethnic integration and relationships within the Latvian
society. The issue of citizenship was primarily focused.
 
Personally, I am quite happy with this attempt to highlight the issue
of citizenship vs. integration. I would like to see much more in this
context. Civil society is traditionally translated as "a society of
citizens" in Latvian. That is, probably, why naturalisation that is
formal act of obtaining the legal status of a citizen is seen broader
in Latvia, also within the framework of human rights and overall
democratisation.

To outline some conclusions of the conference:
 
- to identify the set of activities (which are in the focus of public
duscussion) how to make integration succesful, the goal of the process
should be defined; the task should definitely be exercised by the
state after having prioritised national interests of Latvia in this
context;
 
- to prioritise integration as the major tool for building up a modern
civil society with well-elabirated inclusiveness-providing mechanisms;
a specific ministry should be established for this purpose
(empowerment of inclusiveness);
 
- NGOs, in their majority, social organisations and union, interest
groups are a perfect model for the societal integration/inclusiveness;
people participate in civil society through its self-organised
institute that are the main indicator of democractic development of
the particular society; Latvian NGOs CAN provide a model for
inclusiveness mechanism;
 
Parties [Dim, apparently you mean political parties? - Boris] were
invited to the conference to talk about how they understand the
process of integration. I asked them top formulate those national
interests of Latvia why we need integration. The main answer was that
the integration/inclusiveness will help achieving social security in a
long run. The reason was also to stop alienating people from the
state, which is a dramatic problem for the current Latvian government
(the whole state apparatus, its activities and priorities). The state
has encounetered a huge problem of distrust that is only partly caused
by ethnic belonging diversity.

The Naturalisation Board and the Baltic Data House published the
results of the survey in three languages. I believe it is avalable at
the Naturalisation Board of Latvia.

Dim Alehins

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