MINELRES: Minority issues in Latvia, No. 60

[MINELRES moderator]

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


Dear Madam/Sir,

Because of participation of the members of our team in several workshops
abroad, we publish only one issue of our newsletter in December. The
next issue will be published after Christmas holidays in mid-January. We
wish you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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

Minority issues in Latvia, No. 60
Prepared by the Latvian Human Rights Committee (F.I.D.H.)
December 20, 2002


Content
- Nils Muiznieks approved the Special Task Minister for Society
Integration
- Discussions about ratification of the Framework Convention continue
- The Open Society Institute criticises Latvia for providing
insufficient support for national minorities
- The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities visits Riga,
Minister of Education sees no problems in 2004 transition
- International expertise of bilingual education models in Latvia:
NGO's model is better than the Ministry's ones
- "Language quotas" for private broadcasting discussed by civil
society - and by Constitutional Court?
- The Society Integration Foundation allocates Phare funding
- Teacher dismissed for insufficient knowledge of the state language
wins the court case
- False state language proficiency certificates: who is to be
punished?
- The Holocaust memorial in Rumbula opened
- Repatriates are denied financial support
- 10th anniversary of the Latvian Human Rights Committee


Nils Muiznieks approved the Special Task Minister for Society 
-------------------------------------------------------------
Integration
-----------

On November 21, the Saeima (Parliament) of Latvia approved the
candidacy of Nils Muiznieks, director of the Latvian Centre for Human
Rights and Ethnic Studies, for the post of the Special Task Minister
for Society Integration. The pro-minority parliamentary faction "For
Human Rights in United Latvia" (HRUL), as well as the Russian-language
press welcomed the nomination of Mr Muiznieks for the post, stressing
that they relate with it hopes for fostering of democracy in Latvia. 

In his interview for the daily "Telegraf" ("The Telegraph"), Mr
Muiznieks stated that if he feels that decisions of the government
contradict human rights or hampers the integration, he would not keep
silent. The first task of the minister will be activation of a
dialogue between the state and national minorities. He is planning to
set up the Advisory Council on National Minorities. Similar
consultative body was created by the former President Guntis Ulmanis,
but work of the Council was suspended after Vaira Vike-Freiberga had
been elected, the Council has not been summoned ever since. Second
task will be the examination of the Integration Program. Muiznieks
agrees that the Russian language should have a certain status in
Latvia, namely, the status of a minority language and its usage in
municipalities should be recognised on judicial level ("Telegraf",
November 27,
http://rus.delfi.lv/archive/article.php?id=4349069&ndate=1038348000&categoryID=2078302).
The Minister promises to foster ratification of the Framework
Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. He believes that
the only reservation in the Convention should be made regarding the
topographic names, because Latvia is not yet ready to see street names
in two languages.

Nils Muiznieks asked the government to allot LVL 646,685 for the
formation and activities of his ministry. It is planned that the
Ministry will have three departments � the Society Integration
Department (now it is subordinated to the Ministry of Justice), the
Department for Minority Affairs (will be created on the basis of the
Unit for Minority Affairs of the Naturalisation Board) and the
Administrative Department. The total number of staff amounts to 30
employees. Under the supervision of Muiznieks there will also be two
Advisory Councils � on society integration and on ethnic affairs, as
well as a working group, which will elaborate the concept of ethnic
policy. Besides, financial support is requested for informative and
education events held by the Ministry, as well as already supported
minority related activities within the framework of other ministries.

The Minister of Finance opposes the request of Mr Muiznieks and states
that the decision was to form the post of the minister, not the
ministry. The Prime Minister said that most probably the government
would allot as little funding as possible for this Ministry ("Vesti
Segodnya" ("The News Today"), December 4,
http://rus.delfi.lv/temp/vesti/vs_04_1025.pdf).

Our commentary

We congratulate Mr Muiznieks and believe that approval of his
candidature is definitely the best decision. In the meantime, we have
to express our concern about allocation of financial support for
activities of the new Minister. If integration of the society will not
be a priority for the new government, it will be hard for Mr Muiznieks
to fulfil his task. Nevertheless, we declare our support of the new
Minister and hope that we shall have fruitful co-operation with him.
We also congratulate Ilze Brands-Kehris, who replaced Mr Muiznieks as
the director of the Latvian Centre for Human Rights and Ethnic
Studies.


Discussions about ratification of the Framework Convention continue
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Latvian authorities keep explaining that ratification of the Framework
Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in Latvia is
unwelcome and even harmful. The President of Latvia Vaira
Vike-Freiberga  stated that ratification would be "a desirable step in
the future", however, "now the country is not ready for that". The
President underlined that amendments to the Citizenship Law, the
election legislation and the Education Law secure the rights of
minorities in Latvia and that ratification is not a requirement for
the EU accession ("Diena" ("The Day"), November 27).

Minister for Foreign Affairs Sandra Kalniete also reminded that the
rights of minorities are already secured in the existing Latvian
legislation. She stressed, that being the Latvian ambassador to
France, she has never heard someone saying that France is a
non-democratic country, although it has not ratified the Convention
("Vesti Segodnya" ("The News Today"), November 26,
http://rus.delfi.lv/temp/vesti/vs_02_1018.pdf).

Our commentary

In our view, such argumentation is somewhat awkward. It remains
unclear why ratification causes so fierce resistance of the
right-wing political elite, if, as they claim, the Latvian legislation
is already aligned with all democratic standards.


The Open Society Institute criticises Latvia for providing
----------------------------------------------------------
insufficient support for national minorities
--------------------------------------------

The EU Accession Monitoring Program of the Open Society Institute has
published a new report on minority protection in ten candidate
countries, as well as five largest EU member States. Previous report
was published in 2001, chapter about minority protection in Latvia was
drafted by Boris Koltchanov (Baltic Insight) and Leonid Raihman
(Latvian Human Rights Committee); it can be downloaded from
http://www.politika.lv/polit_real/files/lv/Min-LatviaEN.pdf.

Chapter about minority protection in Latvia in the new report was
drafted by Svetlana Diatchkova (Latvian Centre for Human Rights and
Ethnic Studies); it is available at
http://ftp.osi.hu/euaccession/2002_m_latvia.pdf. The chapter is
devoted to assessment of the national programme "The Integration of
the Society in Latvia" adopted in February 2001.

The researcher notes that the implementation of the Integration
Programme has been non-systematic and involvement of national
minorities in political processes limited. The OSI stresses that one
of the biggest problems for Latvia is the education reform scheduled
for 2004, because a number of schools are not ready for the switch to
instruction in Latvian and many parents are concerned about the
quality of education and ethnic identity of students. Ms Diatchkova
considers it necessary to strengthen the link between integration
policy and minority rights. She recommends to review institutional
framework for integration and minority protection, develop the
legislative basis for minority protection (e.g. ratify the Framework
Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and adopt a
comprehensive Minority Law), to amend the Integration Programme in
order to adopt new priorities, especially in the field of ethnic
integration, as well as increase financial support for the integration
activities.

Our commentary

We welcome professional and objective chapter on minority protection
in Latvia. In our view, the report demonstrates clearly that minority
protection is very far from being a priority of the national programme
"The Integration of the Society in Latvia". Therefore it is not
correct to point at the Programme as a substitute for legislation in
the field of minority protection, like it is often done during
discussions about minority protection in Latvia.


The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities visits Riga, 
--------------------------------------------------------------
Minister of Education sees no problems in 2004 transition
---------------------------------------------------------

The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Rolph Ekeus visited
Riga on December 5. Mr Ekeus met the Minister for Education Karlis
Sadurskis and discussed preparations to the education reform of 2004.
Ekeus notified, that his aim is to foster such transition, which would
not harm ethnic minorities and would not result in assimilation and
isolation. The Minister for Education explained Ekeus, that there is
no reason to postpone education reform, but this process must go, not
harming quality of education.  If there are problems, individual
schedule for schools with problems will be elaborated. Minister
praised the National Programme for Latvian Language Training for its
role in preparing teachers for transition to the reform of 2004.

Some days earlier, on 28 November, the portal of the Russian-language
daily "Chas" ("The Hour") had arranged on-line discussion with the
Minister for Education Karlis Sadurskis
(http://www.chas-daily.com/win/online.html?tagsa=10957). Answering the
question of whether he is acquainted with the Hague Recommendations
Regarding the Education Rights of National Minorities, the Minister
said: "Of course, I am. This document is of advisory nature and, in
general, Latvia complies with it. It is hard to speak about full
compliance, as the notion of national minority is not defined. These
recommendations are generated by the EU in order to protect small
nationalities which are at risk of disappearance. There are 40 of them
in Europe".

On 18 December, in his interview to "Vechernjaja Riga" ("The Evening
Riga"), Minister Sadurskis told: "It is well known that all [people in
Latvia] agree that the transition to the state language [of
instruction] is necessary, other opinions have never been expressed".
To the journalist's objection "We have already become hoarse
expressing these 'other opinions'. If the state doesn't want to hear
it, it does not mean that such opinion does not exist", the Minister
replied: "We are talking with you in a somewhat strange manner, in
different dimensions" ("Vechernjaja Riga" ("The Evening Riga"), 18
December 2002).     

Our commentary

As the statement shows, the top Latvian official in charge of
implementation of the education reform, has a very specific perception
of one of the most important documents in the field of minority
education. Probably, exactly this lack of awareness makes the Minister
think that the reform, providing for elimination of the
state-supported education in minority languages in 2004, complies with
the democratic criteria.  However, in our view, such lack of knowledge
is not so regrettable as lack of clear position concerning the reform
of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, especially
taking into account the Commissioner's office's leading role in
elaboration of the Hague Recommendations.


International expertise of bilingual education models in Latvia:
----------------------------------------------------------------
NGO's model is better than the state ones
-----------------------------------------

On December 12, the seminar "Education for Integration" organised by
the Soros Foundation - Latvia took place. During the seminar, results
of evaluation of bilingual education models conducted by international
expert working group were presented (see
http://www.politika.lv/polit_real/files/lv/Bilingv2002en.pdf).
According to the experts, the term "bilingual education" in Latvia is
not clearly defined. Only the third model (out of 4) of bilingual
education developed by the Misnitry of Education and Science, and the
model developed by the NGO LASHOR (Association for Support of
Russian-Language Schools in Latvia) were admitted as bilingual
curricula ("Panorama Latvii" ("The Panorama of Latvia"), December 13,
http://www.panlat.lv/index.php?g=2002&m=12&d=13&w2=p&pub=020&w1=r&r=2).
Nevertheless, official of the Ministry Guntis Vasilevskis believes
that the education reform of 2004 is going on very well and
invitations to the EU and NATO prove that.


"Language quotas" for private broadcasting discussed by civil society 
---------------------------------------------------------------------
- and by Constitutional Court?
------------------------------

The conference "Electronic Mass Media and Social Integration" was held
by the Latvian Centre for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies on November
22 in Riga. Two most topical issues were discussed: the role of
electronic mass media in integration of the society, and evaluation of
restrictions for broadcasting in minority languages. Section 19 para.
5 of the Law on Radio and Television provides that broadcasting in
languages other than Latvian cannot exceed 25% of the total
broadcasting time both in public and private electronic media.

The conference was attended by Dr Fernand de Varennes, senior lecturer
at Murdoch University, one of the world's leading legal experts on
language rights. Dr de Varennes mentioned that "language quotas" for
broadcasting of private TV and radio stations might constitute a
violation of the right to the freedom of expression (full text of the
presentation is available at
http://www.politika.lv/index.php?id=105040&lang=lv). In his interview
for Radio Free Europe, Dr de Varennes also pointed out that in public
sphere use of languages should be determined without discrimination,
also as regards communication with public authorities. Fernand de
Varennes said, "You must move away from the idea that the only way to
protect the Latvian language is to exclude, to stop the use of other
languages" (full text of the interview is available at
http://www.policy.lv/index.php?id=102507&lang=en).

On December 12, the pro-minority parliamentary faction "For Human
Rights in United Latvia" brought the case before the Constitutional
Court, asking to declare Section 19 para. 5 of the Law on Radio and
Television unconstitutional. The faction considers that this provision
runs counter to a number of articles of the Latvian Constitution, in
particular, Article 89 (human rights protection according to the
Constitution, laws and international agreements), 91 (the prohibition
of discrimination), 100 (the freedom of speech) and 114 (the rights of
national minorities � see
http://www.riga.lv/minelres/NationalLegislation/Latvia/Latvia_Const_excerpts_English.htm
for accurate wording), Article 10 and 14 of the European Convention
for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and
Article 19 and 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights.


The Society Integration Foundation allocates Phare funding
----------------------------------------------------------

For the first time, the Society Integration Foundation granted Phare
funding for 5 integration projects aimed at fostering society
integration in Latvia. Director of the Foundation Nils Sakss said that
there had been some concern regarding the quality of NGOs in Latvia
and their ability to meet the strict criteria of the EU, however, now
he is convinced that Latvia will be able to manage the increased
amount of money which will be allotted within the framework of the
Phare programme next year (EUR 1,000,000). This year only so-called
Latvian-speaking NGOs have received the grants. According to Nils
Sakss, some Phare requirements, such as the project application should
be in English and an NGO should have experience in managing grants in
the amount of at least EUR 10,000, were the key obstacles for many
minority NGOs.

In fact, only two projects out of five are aimed at promotion of
ethnic integration. The first is the study of the Roma situation in
Latvia, the project submitted by the Latvian Centre for Human Rights
and Ethnic Studies, which received EUR 36,103. The second is a
discussion club with design to get 225 applicants prepared for
naturalisation. It was submitted by the Latvian Folk School and
received EUR 22,631. Other three projects are hardly related to ethnic
integration, although the money is originally tailored by Phare for
this purpose. Full list of the accepted projects is available at
http://www.lsif.lv/atbalstitie_en.htm.


Teacher dismissed for insufficient knowledge of the state language
------------------------------------------------------------------
wins the court case
-------------------

We already reported about the case of teacher Valentina Demidovec (see
Minority issues in Latvia, No. 52,
http://lists.delfi.lv/pipermail/minelres/2002-June/001968.html). Her
state language proficiency certificate had been annulled some weeks
before the state language inspectors were deprived of the authority to
conduct additional examinations for holders of such certificates and
to annul legally issued certificates. State language inspector
examined her state language skills and decided that her proficiency in
Latvian was insufficient, although Valentina Demidovec possessed the
state language certificate proving her Latvian language proficiency.
Following this decision, Mrs Demidovec was fired. The teacher disputed
her dismissal in court. On November 22, the court declared the
dismissal illegal and ordered to reinstate. The court has decided that
the state language proficiency certificate was issued legally,
therefore there was no reason to fire the teacher ("Vesti Segodnya"
("The News Today"), November 27,
http://rus.delfi.lv/temp/vesti/vs_06_1019.pdf).


False state language proficiency certificates: who is to be punished?
---------------------------------------------------------------------

The newspaper "Chas" ("The Hour") published an article about the case
of a driver of the Riga municipal enterprise, who experienced problems
with inspectors of the State Language Centre when it turned out that
his state language proficiency certificate is fraudulent. In 1992-1994
a number of small firms and companies examined people's state language
skills and issued them false state language proficiency certificates.
Now holders of such certificates can be fined and even lose their job,
if they cannot pass new examinations. The newspaper criticises
approach of the state in the case, as all attention is paid to holders
of false certificates, not companies which issued them ("Chas",
November 30). It should be mentioned that in year 2002 more than 400
persons were fined administratively for violations in the field of use
of languages (the news agency LETA, December 16).


The Holocaust memorial in Rumbula opened
----------------------------------------

On November 30, a memorial has been unveiled to 26,000 victims of the
Holocaust, which for the first time specifies that the victims shot in
a forest on the edge of the capital in 1941 were Latvian and German
Jews (weekly "The Baltic Times", 5.12.-11.12.02,
http://www.baltictimes.com/front_page.htm#2). Construction of the
memorial was financed by donations from Germany, Israel, Latvia and
United States. Latvia was the killing field of 70,000 members of
Latvian pre-war Jewish community and 30,000-40,000 European Jews.

The question arose before the opening of the memorial of mentioning
Latvian collaborators, who had participated in Rumbula killings. "Of
the 1,700 people who took part in the Rumbula killings, between 1,000
and 1,500 were Latvian residents", US ambassador B.Carlson noted. A
discussion in the City Council was initiated on whether to place
acknowledgment of participation of Latvian collaborators in Rumbula
shootings on memorial tablet. The decision to mention them explicitly
was supported by the Minister for Foreign Affairs  Sandra Kalniete.


Repatriates are denied financial support
----------------------------------------

The newspaper "Panorama Latvii" ("The Panorama of Latvia") reported on
November 30, that the Government will not compensate travel expenses
to the repatriates from Latvia in 2003, due to lack of money
("Panorama Latvii", November 30,
http://www.panlat.lv/index.php?g=2002&m=11&d=30&w2=p&pub=024&w1=r&r=1).
On November 29 the Cabinet postponed implementation of its regulations
on compensations for one year.


10th anniversary of the Latvian Human Rights Committee
------------------------------------------------------

On December 10; the Latvian Human Rights Committee held a reception
devoted to 10th anniversary of the NGO. Prominent politicians, state
officials, diplomats, journalists attended the event. We congratulate
our colleagues and thank all friends of the Committee for support of
our work during last 10 years. We hope that in 2012, when the 20th
anniversary will be celebrated, we shall be able to speak more about
our achievements, not problems.

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

Alexei Dimitrov
Tatyana Bogushevitch
Yuri Dubrovsky

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