MINELRES: Latvia: NGOs' appeal on minority policies

[MINELRES moderator]

Original sender: Valerij Gerasimov <valery@irga.vernet.lv>


The Appeal of Latvian NGOs

These days Latvia is under pressure of international organisations
calling for amendments to the Election Law aimed at elimination of
discriminatory language proficiency requirements for candidates
standing for elections.

The NGOs, which have been consistently protecting democratic
principles in the development of society, appreciate the efforts of
international organisations aimed at making Latvia's legislation
comply with democratic standards.

However, it is not clear why the concern of the European community is
focused only on the undemocratic nature of a few articles in the
Election Law, which, in terms of their practical and social
significance, are of secondary importance, while it is fairly tolerant
towards far more serious examples of discrimination in Latvia. In our
opinion, the main principles are as follows:

1. Mass statelessness - almost one quarter of Latvia's permanent
residents, the majority of whom were born in Latvia, have their
political rights restricted, including the right to vote at municipal
elections. This fact alone testifies indicates violation of one of the
basic principles of democracy - general, equal rights to vote.
Besides, Latvia is evasive in fulfilling the obligations required by
the UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

2. The Education Law stipulates transition of the existing
state-supported secondary school system with the Russian language of
instruction to the Latvian language of instruction from year 2004.
Students' parents - tax-payers - are against such school reform, but
their opinion is ignored.  This law deprives children of the right to
acquire a high-quality education in their native language, the right
to retain their ethno-cultural identity, and we perceive this law as
an instrument of forced assimilation.

3. The Election Law contains provisions, which limit the right to be
elected on political grounds. 

4. The State Language Law contains a number of discriminatory norms
concerning non-Latvian part of the society - more than 40% of
permanent residents of Latvia. Specifically, the State Language Law
excludes the possibility to use minority languages in relations with
the state and municipal authorities even in those regions, where
linguistic minorities are in majority.

5. The Law on Radio and Television prohibits establishing of private
radio and TV channels that broadcast in minority languages, thus
violating the freedom of expression.

Under such circumstances, the closure of monitoring by the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and, what is even more
important, the closure of the OSCE mission to Latvia in our view are
obviously premature steps.

This is confirmed by the fact that during the process of signature of
this Appeal, the Saeima of the Republic of Latvia adopted in the first
reading amendments to the Constitution, which restrict generally
recognised minority rights in the fundamental law of the land. The
aforementioned amendments reduce the level of human right protection
and in fact make impossible a full-scale ratification of the Framework
Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, which was signed
by Latvia in 1995 but has not been ratified yet.

The attitude of the European community towards serious violations of
national minority rights in Latvia is in sharp contrast to the swift
and stern reaction, which forced the state institutions of Macedonia
to amend its laws quickly in a way that increased the rights of the
Albanian minority.

There is an explanation for that - in order to achieve their goals,
the Albanians initiated an armed conflict. But we in Latvia have been
striving for almost 10 years to protect our rights by democratic
means, including the attempt to focus the attention of the European
community on the existing problems.  Nevertheless, non-violent means
do not elicit adequate attention and support.

Unfortunately, the aforementioned example proves the existence of a
double standard in the sphere of human rights. A tolerant attitude of
international organisations towards Latvia is perceived as endorsement
of a discriminatory policy, which is aimed at making Latvia a
mono-ethnic, Latvian state regardless of the fact that modern-day
Latvia has been inhabited for hundreds of years by people belonging to
different linguistic, ethno-cultural and religious groups.

The national integration programme is trying to achieve the same
ethnocratic goal and is thereby distorting the idea of social
integration; thus, this goal is not acceptable for the majority of
NGOs, which represent the interests of Latvian national minorities. 
The national programme ignores the interests of national minorities;
because it tends towards assimilation, it cannot serve as an
instrument for real integration of the society.

Genuine integration is not possible in the current unequal
dual-community situation, where one part of the society is
subordinated to another part, under increasingly tense conditions,
when there is lack of meaningful dialogue between the government and
the non-Latvian part of the society. Moreover, the actions of
political leaders are widening the gap and are thereby promoting the
destabilisation and disintegration of the society.  

In appealing to intergovernmental organisations, their members and
international organisations we are requesting them to take a
principled stand against violations of human rights and especially
minority rights in Latvia and to use their authority to resolve issues
of the greatest importance for Latvian national minorities:
- reduction of statelessness; 
- usage of minority languages in relations with the state and
municipal institutions in areas inhabited by national minorities in
substancial number, as provided by the Framework Convention for the
Protection of National Minorities;
- preservation of the existing system of education with the Russian
language of instruction.

We ask you to be guided not by political considerations, but by the
spirit of international agreements on the protection of human and
national minority rights that are in force in Europe, when evaluating
Latvia's readiness to join the European Union.

1 Latvian Human Rights Committee (F.I.D.H.)     
  G.Kotov
2 The Russian Community of Latvia       
  V.Altukhov
3 The Russian Society of Latvia 
  T.Favorskaya
4 The Russian Community of Jurmala      
  J.Kolesnikov
5 The Baltic Slavic Society for Cultural Development and
Co-operation   
  J.Jaroshevskaya
6 The Byelorussian Society 'Pramen'     
  N.Buriy
7 The Union of the Ukrainians of Latvia 
  V.Stroy
8 The Latvian Association of Fighters of Anti-Hitler Coalition  
  V.Tarnovsky
9 Society of Former Infants Aggrieved through the Nazi Regime and
Abiding in Latvia       
   E.Ilyakhina
10 The Society of the Former Residents of Leningrad Blockaded During
the WW2 
   V.Fedotov
11 The Council of the Housing Committees of the Renters and Owners of
Flats   
   S.Lisivnenko
12 The Fund 'Pateiciba' 
   V.Frolov
13 The Movement 'For Neutrality'        
   A.Bartashevich
14 Movement of Tenants for Own Rights   
   A.Lebedev
15 Association of Military Pensioners   
   P.Turkelis
16 Latvian Union of Searching Units     
   A.Urtaiyev
17 Latvian Youth Club   
   V.Yolkin
18 Union of Latvian Partisan Brigades   
   V.Gruzdup
19 Association of Latvian - Russian Cooperation 
   B.Katkov
20 The Russian Community of Daugavpils  
   O.Tolmachev
21 The music and poetry club    
   V.Novozhilov
22 Small and middle business association        
   A.Askerov
23 Latvian association of russian youth 
   V.Andreev
24 Russian national and cultural society of Daugavpils  
   G.Lobov
25 The protection foundation of repressed peoples       
   V.Bogdanov
26 Russian concert and theatre society  
   E.Schevchenko