MINELRES: Minority issues in Latvia, No. 53

[MINELRES moderator]

Original sender: Alexei Dimitrov <minissues@delfi.lv>


Dear Madam/Sir,

After summer holidays we continue publishing of our newsletter. Most
significant minority-related events in Latvia since mid-June are covered
in this issue. As before the holidays, our newsletter will be published
semi-monthly.

Yours sincerely,
Alexei Dimitrov
editor
-------------------------------------

Minority issues in Latvia, No. 53
Prepared by the Latvian Human Rights Committee (F.I.D.H.)
August 11, 2002

Content

- Parliamentary elections: parties on minority issues
- ECRI publishes its second report on Latvia
- Education in minority languages: problems and solutions
- The State Language Centre controls implementation of the State
Language Law at public events
- Parents of children with temporary residence permits have to pay for
school education
- Less TV news in the Russian language
- Is minority in Latvia worth defining?
- Website of the Society Integration Department


Parliamentary elections: parties on minority issues
---------------------------------------------------

The Central Election Commission finished registration of the electoral
lists on August 6, i.e. two months before the elections day October 5.
21 list have been submitted. Hereby we offer a brief overview of the
political parties' attitudes towards minorities and integration as
reflected in their pre-election programmes.

All parties might be divided into several groups. The first is the
radical nationalistic one. These are "For Fatherland and
Freedom/LNNK", Coalition of Greens and Farmers, the Party of (Ethnic)
Latvians ("Latvieshu partija") with the notorious publisher of
xenophobic literature Aivars Garda as a leader of the list, and some 
more small parties. All these parties declare "the Latvian Latvia" as
their goal, and claim that (quoting the Coalition of Greens and
Farmers) "only ethnic Latvians have the right to determine the future
of Latvia". "Our Land" ("Musu Zeme") and the Party of Latvians
emphasize the necessity of decolonisation. We would also put the "The
Russian party" into the same group of explicitly nationalistic
parties, for it de facto advocates ethnic segregation (currently this
party is not represented in the parliament but has one member in the
capital city Riga municipal council).

The second group includes the parties which do not mention minorities
and integration issues in their pre-election programmes at all. These
are ruling right-wing People�s Party, the Freedom Party, Union of
Social Democrats, and some more small parties. The leader of the
election race, recently esatblished right-wing "New Era" party speaks
only of "helping those who wishes to learn the Latvian language", as
well as of "the need to defend the Latvian language not only in the
state and municipal, but also in the social and service spheres".

A number of parties declare active support for integration policies
and manifest readiness to respect the rights of ethnic minorities.
However, concrete measures proposed by diferent parties to achieve
this goal differ greatly. In particular, major minority-based
coalition "For Human Rights in the United Latvia" (HRUL) envisages
immediate ratification and fair implementation of the Framework
Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, including use of
minority languages before public authorities in areas where minorities
constitute not less than 20% of the population, and preservation of
public education in minority languages at the secondary level. On the
contrary, Latvian Social-Democratic Workers' Party is in favor of
elimination of secondary education in minority languages in 2004, as
the Education law currently in force stipulates. The ruling right-wing
party "The Latvian Way", along with the promotion of integration,
calls for "improvement of education system as the basis for strong
Latvian identity" (see full texts of the programmes in Latvian at
http://test.euronet.lv/cvk/pub/?doc_id=28199).
 
The portal of public policy www.politika.lv also published positions
of some political parties in respect of ratification of the Framework
Convention on the Protection of National Minorities. "The New Era",
"The Latvian Way", the People's Party and the First Latvian Party
consider that the Convention must be ratified with reservations, and
that only citizens of Latvia should be recognised as persons belonging
to minorities (see
http://www.politika.lv/index.php?id=103991&lang=lv).

Pro-minority coalition "HRUL", besides the common list submitted in
all electoral districts, submitted another list under the name of one
of the coalition parties - the People's Harmony Party. This second
list was submitted only in one out of five electoral districts, and
contained only one name � Tatyana Zhdanok, leader of the "Equal
Rights"
party (another "HRUL" coalition party), and one of the founders of the
Latvian Human Rights Committee. Electoral legislation of Latvia
provides that persons who were active in the Communist Party,
Komsomol, Interfront, and some veteran organizations after January 13,
1991, cannot run for both parliamentary and municipal elections
(although these organizations were legislatively banned only in August
1991 - see corresponding provisions of the Saeima Election Law at
http://www.minelres.lv/NationalLegislation/Latvia/Latvia_ElecParl_excerpts_English.htm).
Mrs. Zhdanok was a member of the Inner Audit Commission in the Latvian
Communist Party, therefore in December 1999 she was deprived of the
Riga City Council deputy's mandate on the reason of alleged
"activities" in the Latvian Communist Party after January 13, 1991
(see Minority issues in Latvia, No. 10,
http://racoon.riga.lv/minelres/archive//11271999-18:57:30-21424.html).
Mrs. Zhdanok has brought the case before the European Court of Human
Rights. The admissibility decision is anticipated soon. Submission of
the separate list aimed at strengthening the case before the
Strasbourg court. Since the European Convention of Human Rights
declares the right of all citizens to participate, without
discrimination, in parliamentary - not municipal - elections, this
might provide a pretext to question Mrs Zhdanok's application's
admissibility. 
 
On August 7, the Central Election Commission decided to strike Mrs.
Zhdanok's name off the electoral list, and to annul registration of
the People's Harmony Party's electoral list. 

In August 2000 the Constitutional Court of Latvia passed its judgment
regarding compliance of the political restrictions in the electoral
legislation with the Constitution, the European Convention of Human
Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The Court found that the restrictions were well-reasoned and
legitimate, but recommended to introduce the time limit for them (see
Minority issues in Latvia, No. 19,
http://www.minelres.lv/archive//09012000-18:08:59-13484.html;
full English text of the judgment is available at
http://www.satv.tiesa.gov.lv/Eng/Spriedumi/03-01(00).htm; dissenting
opinion of three judges is available at
http://www.satv.tiesa.gov.lv/Eng/Spriedumi/03-01(opinions).htm).

The Freedom Party, which opposes Latvia's EU membership, started its
pre-election campaign this June with TV-clips that included some
racist features (the newspaper "Chas" ("The Hour"), June 27,
http://www.chas-daily.com/win/2002/06/27/l_055.html). The main
emphasis in both clips, featuring a black man in the Latvian army
uniform standing in guard near the Freedom Monument, is given to the
noting: "Today - guardian of Latvia, tomorrow � may be your
son-in-law?" (http://www.brivibaspartija.lv/bp1.mpg;
http://www.brivibaspartija.lv/bp2.mpg). The clip was removed from the
public TV because of its racist content (however, after it had been
aired some times). The General Prosecutor's office, asked to examine
the case by a private person, found no corpus delicti. In fact, the
Freedom Party uses the same methods in its pre-election campaign
(anti-immigrant policies), as Joerg Haider�s party did in Austria.
Z.Chevers, the leader of the Latvian Freedom party, stated that his
party has established partnership relations with its Austrian "twin".
This is the first case in Latvia when anti-immigrant mood is made a
core of the pre-election campaign.  


ECRI publishes its second report on Latvia
------------------------------------------
 
On July 23, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance
(ECRI), a body of the Council of Europe composed of independent
experts, published its second report on Latvia (available at
http://www.coe.int/t/E/human_rights/ecri/1-ECRI/2-Country-by-country_approach/Latvia/Latvia_CBC_2.asp#TopOfPage)
adopted on December 14, 2001. ECRI's first report on Latvia was
published in March 1999 (see the text at
http://www.minelres.lv/count/latvia/Latvia_ECRI_1999.htm).

ECRI recognises that Latvia has taken a number of steps towards
addressing issues of racism, intolerance and discrimination: measures
to facilitate access to citizenship, moves to improve non-Latvian
population�s knowledge of the Latvian language and the recent adoption
of an integration strategy.

At the same time ECRI informs about problems of the Russian-speaking
population, many members of whom are still non-citizens: the risk of
exclusion and marginalisation from the structures of society and the
decision-making processes, imbalances in the position of the
Russian-speaking population, separation between communities and
climate where social tensions may arise. It also mentions that there
is a lack of a comprehensive body of anti-discrimination legislation
and the need to increase the effectiveness of the criminal law
provisions aimed at combating racist and intolerant expressions.
 
Recommendations of ECRI cover the need to hasten the naturalisation
process, the need to monitor the effects of legislation in the field
of language and access to mother tongue education and to take the
necessary corrective action, the need to increase knowledge of the
Latvian language by non-Latvians and the need to implement the
integration strategy in order to make it beneficial to the cohesion of
the whole population.

The report received extensive coverage in Latvia's media. On July 25,
the Latvian-language opinion-maker daily "Diena" ("The Day") published
a commentary of the director of the Information Centre of the Council
of Europe in Latvia Uldis Krastins; on August 2 the report was
commented by journalist Nikolai Kabanov (the newspaper "Vesti
Segodnya" ("The News Today"),
http://rus.delfi.lv/news/daily/vesti/article.php?id=3629986).

Our commentary

We welcome recommendations of ECRI mentioned in the report. Although
some of them have been already taken into account after December 2001
(for example, the state language requirements for deputy candidates
are abolished), the core of the recommendations remain topical: to
ratify the Framework Convention for the Protection of National
Minorities; to confer eligibility and voting rights to resident
non-citizens at local elections; to implement the State Language Law
in accordance with the principle of proportionality; to ensure that
provisions regulating the use of language in contacts with public
institutions do not result in reduced access to such institutions; to
review the timetable for the introduction of Latvian as the language
of instruction in state-financed secondary education for minorities.

At the same time we believe that the date of publishing of the report
was chosen unfortunately - during the summer holidays. It allowed
state officials to avoid commenting the report and answering the
media's questions. 


Education in minority languages: problems and solutions
-------------------------------------------------------

The youth organization of the pro-minority coalition "For Human Rights
in United Latvia" has completed its survey about the future of
minority education (see Minority issues in Latvia, No. 48,
http://www.minelres.lv/archive//04162002-15:37:08-27700.html). As Ivan
Stalnoy, leader of the organisation, told at the press conference on
July 19, 3,000 signatures were collected during the action. The survey
took place in large cities, where minorities live, and the regions
where Latvians are in overwhelming majority (respondents were young
people from 16 to 30 years old).  91,2% of respondents support
maintenance of education in minority languages, while 7,8% do not. 53%
of surveyed are Russian-speakers, 41% ethnic Latvians, while 6% belong
to other ethnic groups. More than 40% of those supporting education in
minority languages are ethnic Latvians ("Chas" ("The Hour"), July 20,
http://www.chas-daily.com/win/2002/07/20/l_034.html; "Telegraf" ("The
Telegraph"), July 19,
http://rus.delfi.lv/archive/index.php?id=3558385).

On July 22, the newspaper "Vesti Segodnya" ("The News Today") reported
about the open letter of parents, whose children study in one of
Russian-language schools in Riga, against elimination of the
state-supported secondary education in minority languages in 2004 (can
be downloaded from http://rus.delfi.lv/temp/vesti/vs_04_910.pdf). It
is one of the first overt protests against the "problem-2004" voiced
by the parents from Riga, earlier similar
letters were written by parents from other cities of Latvia. Parents
protest against the transition to the Latvian language of instruction
in 2004 and imposed "bilingual model", which, in their view, makes an
existing differentiation between Latvian and Russian schools deeper.
Parents claim that according to international instruments signed by
Latvia, minority schoolchildren have the right to receive secondary
education in their mother tongue. The signatories consider that
teaching of the Latvian language is not improved in Russian-language
schools, and the method it is taught does not provide necessary
motivation. Letter was sent to the President of Latvia, the Saeima and
the Cabinet of Ministers.

According to new models of pre-school education programmes prepared by
the Ministry of Education and Science, parents can choose the language
of instruction for their children to get prepared for school. Two
lessons a week in minority pre-school bodies will be in Latvian (basic
expressions) -  the practices existing so far but up to now not
prescribed by legislative acts. The Ministry informed that in the
beginning of 2001/2002 school year there were 761 pre-school bodies in
Latvia, among them 563 in Latvian, 113 mixed (Latvian and Russian), 83
Russian and three Polish. 22,7% out of the total number of children
attended the Russian-language groups in previous school year ("Diena"
("The Day"), August 3).

The NGO LASHOR (Association for Support of Russian-Language Schools in
Latvia, for details see http://www.lashor.lv) scheduled the Third
parents' conference for September 14, three weeks before the
parliamentary elections (see information about previous conferences in
Minority issues in Latvia, No. 23,
http://www.minelres.lv/archive//12232000-13:14:48-27639.html, and No.
40, http://www.minelres.lv/archive//12102001-09:16:25-11465.html).
Leader of LASHOR Igor Pimenov did not deny that this action is
political. Its aim is to show the needs of parents to political
parties and to see which parties are ready to support the LASHOR's
ideas in the field of education in minority languages. Representatives
of all leading parties will be invited to participate. The organizers
appeal to the politicians to abolish the transition of state-supported
secondary schools to the Latvian language of instruction in 2004, to
guarantee the possibility to receive elementary and secondary
education in minority languages, including Russian, to create the
department on minority affairs in the Ministry of Education, to give
the right to choose the language of instruction in the school to
municipality in accordance with the decision of the school council, as
well as to pay attention to the views of schoolchildren and their
parents when choosing the school programme ("Vesti Segodnya" ("The
News Today"), August 7,
http://rus.delfi.lv/archive/index.php?id=3661898).


The State Language Centre controls implementation of the State 
--------------------------------------------------------------
Language Law at public events
-----------------------------

International sand sculpture festival took place in the beach resort
of Jurmala on July 27. A number of Latvians voiced their concern that
the working language of the festival was Russian. The organiser of the
festival - the publishing house "Petit" - states that interpretation
in the state language would have been ensured if anybody would request
it.

According to Section 11 para. 3 of the State Language Law (see at
http://www.riga.lv/minelres/NationalLegislation/Latvia/Latvia_Language_English.htm)
and regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers "Regulations on Ensuring
Innterpretation in Events" (see at
http://www.riga.lv/minelres/NationalLegislation/Latvia/Latvia_LangRegEvents_English.htm),
at events, organised by private institutions, organisations,
enterprises (companies), physical persons or international
institutions, the organiser of the event ensures interpretation of
information that concerns legitimate public interests (connected to
public safety, health, morals, health care, protection of consumer
rights and labour rights, workplace safety and public administrative
supervision) into the state language, as well as provides versatile
and complete information about the organised event. The opinion of
senior inspector of the State Language Centre Andris Capins was that
the lack of interpretation was a violation of the State Language Law
as it concerns legitimate public interests. However, deputy director
of the State Language Centre Agris Timuska
said, "it was not right [not to provide interpretation],
unfortunately, the law allows this."

However, the State Language Centre imposed a fine in the amount of Ls
50 (approx. EUR 85) on the organisers of another big event in Jurmala
- the international song festival "The New Wave", which took place on
July 31 � August 4. The event was financed by Russia's show-business
company, and live-broadcasted on Russia's main TV-channel ORT. The
organisers did not provide translation of the festival into the
Latvian language. The organisers agree that the law was violated and
they do not intend to appeal against the decision; however, they
believe that the implementation of the law could be more flexible
("Chas" ("The Hour"), August 9,
http://www.chas-daily.com/win/2002/08/09/l_066.html; "Telegraf" ("The
Telegraph"), August 9,
http://rus.delfi.lv/news/daily/telegraf/article.php?id=3669863).

Our commentary

Unfortunately, the State Language Law allows interference of the state
into the private sphere, since the criterion of "legitimate public
interests" used to be interpreted overly broadly. The abovementioned
cases demonstrate clearly that officials of the State Language Centre
have serious problems regarding interpretation of this general clause.
In our view, the problem could be avoided, if the Law would prohibit
interference of the state into the private sphere at all, or the
regulations of the Cabinet would provide a precise list of the
situations when such interference is permitted. The State Language
Centre should also pay attention to legal training of its officials,
especially in the field of human rights and minority rights.


Parents of children with temporary residence permits have to pay for 
--------------------------------------------------------------------
school education
----------------

According to the Education Law, more than 300 children in Latvia have
to pay for their education at state-financed schools. These are
children, who are not citizens of non-EU states and live in Latvia
with temporary residence permits. The Board on Citizenship and
Migration Affairs started to implement the law only recently,
therefore only some individuals have to pay for primary and secondary
education in state-financed schools. The Board did not require
concluding a contract with the school administration when issued
temporary residence permits some years ago ("Vesti Segodnya" ("The
News Today"), July 29,
http://rus.delfi.lv/archive/index.php?id=3602878&ndate=29.07.2002&categoryID).

Our commentary

In our view, the provision of the Education Law could be an obstacle
in access to education for children from minority families, whose
parents have problems with their legal status in Latvia, even if these
children were born in the country. One year of learning in 8th grade
of primary school costs Ls 362 (approx. EUR 610). This sum is quite
significant for Latvia, as minimum gross salary is Ls 60 per month.


Less TV news in the Russian language
------------------------------------

One of the private TV channels of Latvia stops broadcasting news in
the Russian language. The TV3 Latvija channel will not produce spots
on its own anymore, buying them from independent producers. Although
the popularity ratings of the news were very high, the owner of the
channel, the Swedish concern MTG, is not ready to invest more to the
spots ("Vesti Segodnya" ("The News Today"), August 7,
http://rus.delfi.lv/news/daily/vesti/article.php?id=3654637).

Our commentary

In fact, now only one out of five Latvian TV channels regularly
broadcasts daily news in Russian; however, it is a brief version of
the translated news in Latvian. Together with the 25% quota on the
broadcasting in languages other than Latvian on private channels, the
reduction of the news in the Russian language contributes to the
Russian-speaking audience's switching to the Russia's TV channels via
cable or satellite. Consequently, the rising concerns about increasing
"informational segregation" in the society are gaining more ground.


Is minority in Latvia worth defining?
-------------------------------------

An article titled "Minorities � a definition well-balanced or none"
written by the director of the Society Integration Department of the
Ministry of Justice Reinis Aboltins was published at the portal of the
Latvian public policy www.politika.lv on August, 6
(http://www.politika.lv/index.php?id=103973&lang=lv). The author
analyses the current situation with the definition of minorities
giving insight into the international legal documents and describing
political and legal approaches to the problem. Mr. Aboltins questions
the necessity to define minorities in the Latvian legislation since a
broad agreement upon whether to grant the minority status to
non-citizens cannot be reached. The author also points out that "the
ratification of the Framework Convention for the Protection of
National Minorities just for the fact of ratification will favour
neither the state nor minorities".


Website of the Society Integration Department
---------------------------------------------

The Society Integration Department of the Ministry of Justice has
presented its own website (http://www.integracija.gov.lv). The website
is created due to financial support of the embassies of France and
Norway, as well as of UNDP.

The newspaper "Panorama Latvii" ("The Panorama of Latvia") criticises
the content of the website and the fact that it is available only in
Latvian. The newspaper believes that the website will not reach the
actual target audience � non-citizens and non-Latvians - as
responsible officials could not tell when the site will be available
in Russian and English. Besides, many people do not have access to
internet in Latvia.

----------------
Compiled by:

Alexei Dimitrov
Tatyana Bogushevitch
Yuri Dubrovsky

==============================================================
Minority issues in Latvia
Newsletter published by the Latvian Human Rights Committee (F.I.D.H.)
Subscription/inquiries: minissues@delfi.lv
Back issues:
http://www.minelres.lv/count/latvia.htm#MinIssuesLatvia
==============================================================