MINELRES: Minority issues in Latvia, No. 57

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


Minority issues in Latvia, No. 57
Prepared by the Latvian Human Rights Committee (F.I.D.H.)
October 15, 2002


Content
- Parliamentary elections in Latvia: no changes for minorities?
- Parliamentary elections: evaluation by international observers
- Parliamentary elections: some more minority related aspects
- Next EU Progress Report on Latvia: minority protection
- First case against Latvia on education reform 2004 in ECHR
- Positive discrimination of Roma rejected
- What is written in the international documents on minority
education?
- Still no partner for dialogue with minorities
- Private TV channel to launch news in Russian


Parliamentary elections in Latvia: no changes for minorities?
-------------------------------------------------------------

The elections of the 8th Saeima (parliament) took place in Latvia on
October 5, 2002. According to the Constitution of the Republic of
Latvia (see at
http://www.minelres.lv/NationalLegislation/Latvia/Latvia_Const_excerpts_English.htm),
the Saeima (100 MPs) is elected in general, equal, direct and secret
elections, on the basis of proportional representation, for four
years. The elections are held in five constituencies � Riga, Vidzeme,
Zemgale, Latgale and Kurzeme.

According to provisional results of the elections, 6 parties (out of
20 which took part in the elections) have overcome the 5% threshold
and will be represented in the new Parliament: recently established
right-wing "New Era" party (26 MPs, not represented in the current 7th
Saeima), the pro-minority leftist coalition "For Human Rights in
United Latvia" ("HRUL" - 24, in 7th Saeima - 16), the ruling
right-wing People's Party (21, in 7th Saeima - 24), Union of Greens
and Farmers (12, not represented in the 7th Saeima, except for some
MPs who changed their party affiliation lately), the newly established
christian Latvian First Party (10, not represented in the 7th Saeima,
except for some MPs who changed their party affiliation lately), and
radical nationalistic ruling "For Fatherland and Freedom"/LNNK (7, in
7th Saeima - 17). Other parties, including ruling "The Latvian Way"
(4.88 per cent) and oppositional Latvian Social Democratic Workers'
Party (4.02 per cent) have not got over the 5% barrier. Extreme
nationalistic [Ethnic] Latvian Party received 0.4%, nationalistic
Russian party - 0,48% (for more detailed provisional data, see
http://www.cvk.lv/cgi-bin/wdbcgiw/base/sae8dev.vel8.sa3).   

While the new government is yet to be formed, leaders of all five
parties have made themselves clear: "HRUL" that got the second biggest
number of mandates is the only unacceptable partner. Apparently, it is
not its "leftist orientation" that impedes the cooperation. The
conditions for joining the coalition articulated by the "For
Fatherland and Freedom"/LNNK and accepted by all the partners of the
would-be new coalition (the "New Era", the First Latvian Party and the
Union of Greens and Farmers) are as follows: no voting rights in the
municipal elections for non-citizens, and no postponement of
elimination of the state-supported secondary education in minority
languages scheduled for 2004-2006. No agreement concerning distribution
of the ministers' positions has been reached so far.

Our commentary

It seems that the assumption that "bigger representation means bigger
influence on decision-making" has suffered a defeat in Latvia. The
increased support for "HRUL" (24 mandates instead of former 16)
clearly indicates that the citizens belonging to minorities do not
accept the policies towards them implemented by the current
government, and that minority-related issues are more important for
them than traditional "left vs right" division. However, despite this,
the votes of these Latvian citizens seem to be neglected as before. In
fact, other parties in the parliament are ready to ignore the second
biggest parliamentary faction solely because of its "pro-minority"
orientation. This situation may entail disappointment in the tools of
participatory democracy, and thus cause further alienation of
minorities - in particular, discourage non-citizens to naturalize,
thus slowing down the naturalization rates. Indeed, it is difficult to
advocate the advantages of the political participation, if the
interests of minorities are articulately neglected, even when
expressed unequivocally.    

Another potential danger connected with the results of the elections
is a big number of new MPs. Almost all those politicians who were
involved in close cooperation with the OSCE, Council of Europe, CBSS,
etc on minority issues, and thus got some experience and knowledge of
the modern standards of minority protection, are not represented in
the parliament any longer (this is particularly true in respect of
"The Latvian Way" party who kept the position of the Minister of
Foreign Affairs since 1993). New MPs come with all prejudices and
stereotypes widespread in Latvian society. In the meantime, the OSCE
mission is not in Latvia anymore, the monitoring of the Council of
Europe is closed, and it is not clear how international community
could develop the dialogue with the new Latvian authorities on
minority protection. Current partners in accession negotiations - the
EU and NATO - have neither legal instruments nor special assessment
procedures nor expertise in this field, while negotiations at the
level of political bargaining are hardly effective. In our view, this
situation might substantially slow down, or even reverse, the modest
progress in the field of minority protection achieved so far.

 
Parliamentary elections: evaluation by international observers
--------------------------------------------------------------

On October 6, the International Election Observation Mission (joint
effort between the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human
Rights (ODIHR) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe) made public its statement on preliminary findings and
conclusions concerning elections. The Mission concluded that the
elections were well administered and conducted in accordance with the
OSCE commitments and international standards for democratic elections.
Abolition of the state language proficiency requirements for deputy
candidates was mentioned as one of the main positive features (see
Minority issues in Latvia, No. 50,
http://lists.delfi.lv/pipermail/minelres/2002-May/001910.html).

In the meantime, the Mission criticised restrictions for candidates
based on their past affiliations with political party or security
service. Section 5 of the Law on the Saeima Election Law provides that
persons are not to be included in the candidate lists and are not
eligible for running for the Saeima elections, if they belong or have
belonged to the salaried staff of the USSR, Latvian SSR or foreign
state security, intelligence or counterintelligence services, or after
January 13, 1991 have been active in the Communist Party or satellite
oppositional organisations (see corresponding provisions at
http://www.riga.lv/minelres/NationalLegislation/Latvia/Latvia_ElecParl_excerpts_English.htm).
The Mission stated that these provisions are not consistent with
article 7.5 of the Copenhagen Document, which calls on all OSCE
participating states "to respect the right of citizens to seek
political or public office, individually or as representatives of
political parties or organisations, without discrimination". The
Mission also welcomed judgment of the Constitutional Court of Latvia,
which decided in 2000 that the restrictions were legitimate, but
recommended to introduce time limit for them (see Minority issues in
Latvia, No. 19,
http://racoon.riga.lv/minelres/archive//09012000-18:08:59-13484.html).

The Mission also mentioned that approximately 22% of the population
are considered to be "non-citizens" (i.e. persons who came to Latvia
during the Soviet period after 1940 and did not receive the
citizenship through the naturalisation procedure; almost all of them
are persons belonging to national minorities). According to the
election legislation, non-citizens have no right to stand for public
office, and no voting rights in either parliamentary or municipal
elections. These provisions together with a slow rate of
naturalisation (600-1000 persons per month) create "a serious and
long-term democratic deficit". Non-citizens can vote in municipal
elections in Estonia and Lithuania. The OSCE/ODIHR would encourage a
full and public discussion on the issue of granting non-citizens the
voting rights in municipal elections, the Mission said. Full text of
the Mission�s statement is available at
http://www.osce.org/press_rel/documents/2002-527-odihr_latvia_preliminary_statement.pdf).

The statement caused a reserved reaction from the state authorities.
State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maris Riekstins
said that there had never been "official requirements" to abolish
political restrictions for deputy candidates or to grant voting rights
for non-citizens in municipal elections, but such issues could appear
topical in the course of EU and NATO accession ("Diena" ("The Day"),
October 7). On October 15, daily "Diena" published an article about
lustration and lack of voting rights for non-citizens stating that the
same restrictions exist in other European countries too.

The Russian-language daily "Panorama Latvii" ("The Panorama of
Latvia") organized an action called "non-elections" � a poll held like
quasi-elections, where both citizens and non-citizens could vote. More
than 8,000 people participated in the action; the majority of them
"voted" for the pro-minority coalition "HRUL" ("Panorama Latvii",
October 3,
http://www.panlat.lv/index.php?g=2002&m=10&d=03&w2=p&pub=010&w1=r&r=2).
Besides that, the Co-ordination Council of NGOs (including more than
20 minority, human rights, cultural and other NGOs) has sent a letter
to Director of ODIHR Gerard Stoudmann stating that the elections
cannot be recognised as democratic, because non-citizens could not
vote ("Chas" ("The Hour"), October 3,
http://www.chas-daily.com/win/2002/10/03/l_045.html?r=30&). More than
60 similar individual statements of non-citizens were submitted to
Gerald Mitchell, Head of the International Election Observation
Mission in Latvia.
 

Parliamentary elections: some more minority related aspects 
-----------------------------------------------------------

Latvian TV-2 (second channel of public TV) launched a four-hour-long
TV show in Russian in the elections night. The broadcast turned out
quite popular among viewers, and LTV-2 gained the double audience this
night, compared with other days. Election topics were discussed in the
studio, starting from the pre-election campaign and ending with
potential benefits that different political parties can bring for the
ethnically Russian voters (such as the question of education reform
2004, or relations with Russia). Anna Novitskaya, political editor the
Russian-language daily "Telegraf" ("The Telegraph"), who herself
participated in the show, commented it as a case of real integration,
"which is made not by travels abroad or inventing political concepts,
but by mere communication" ("Telegraf", October 7,
http://rus.delfi.lv/archive/index.php?id=4044145).

On October 3, two Russia's Jewish religious communities "Marom" and
"Hineyni" argued against holding Latvia's parliamentary elections on
Saturday, as thus religious and political rights of the Latvian Jewish
community  would be denied ("Panorama Latvii", October 4,
http://www.panlat.lv/index.php?g=2002&m=10&d=04&w2=p&pub=024&w1=r&r=1).
Both organisations declared that Latvia could transfer the date of
elections to any other day, thus giving the citizens of Jewish faith
possibility to vote, as it is done in "civilised countries". According
to the organisations, "denial of the voting rights for Jews" will
seriously harm Latvia on international arena. Latvia's Chabad rabby
Mordechai Glazman commented on this case, that, though he himself
cannot take part in the elections, Jewish citizens of Latvia will not
be able to vote too, and it is worth to think about this before the
next elections.

Our commentary

Since 1998, elections in Latvia have been held on Saturday, and no
complaints from Latvian Jewish religious community were ever
expressed. Sabbath begins with sunset on Friday and ends with the
sunset on Saturday, thus offering the Jewish believers some hours to
vote, as polling stations are opened from 8:00 till 20:00.


Next EU Progress Report on Latvia: minority protection
------------------------------------------------------

On October 9, the Commission of the European Communities made public
its 2002 Regular Report on Latvia's progress towards accession. In the
field of protection of minorities, the Commission welcomes abolition
of the state language requirements for deputy candidates, promotion of
naturalisation, inception of the Society Integration Foundation,
activities in the field of the state language training. At the same
time, the Framework Convention for the Protection of National
Minorities has not still been ratified; "Latvia is urged to ratify
it". Thus, for the first time the Commission decided to go beyond mere
observation that the Framework Convention is not yet ratified, and
explicitly recommended to ratify it. 

Some more causes for concern were mentioned by the Commission. In
particular, the fact that funding for the Naturalisation Board has
been reduced. The number of applications for citizenship for children
born after restoration of independence, whose parents are not the
citizens of Latvia, remains low (according to amendments to the
Citizenship Law adopted in 1998, these children can receive the
citizenship of Latvia by request, if their parents submit an
application).

As regards elimination of the state-supported secondary education in
minority languages scheduled for 2004, "sufficient flexibility should
be provided for in the transition phase in order to ensure equal
education opportunities, and efforts should be enhanced to closely
involve minority representatives in any relevant decision-making
process", the report goes. In the field of the language legislation,
"some of provisions are worded in such a way that they could give rise
to different interpretations". The Commission emphasises that it is
"important that the competent authorities only apply and enforce the
State Language Law and its implementing regulations to the extent
required by legitimate public interest". According to the Commission,
"recent amendments to the Law on Local Governments concerning the
working language in municipalities and their subordinate institutions
reportedly represent a potential risk to the opportunities that exist
in practice for the use of minority languages in dealings with public
authorities". 

Full text of the Report is available at
http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/report2002/lv_en.pdf.
 
Our commentary

We welcome the competent and comprehensive report of the European
Commission. We hope that criticisms the report contains will be taken
into account both by the Latvian and European authorities in the
accession process. In the meantime, we believe that the approach
towards elimination of the state-supported secondary education in
minority languages could be more clear and articulate, and more in
line with the corresponding 
Resolution of the European Parliament on the state of enlargement
negotiations (see Minority issues in Latvia, No. 52,
http://lists.delfi.lv/pipermail/minelres/2002-June/001968.html).

 
First case against Latvia on education reform 2004 in ECHR
-----------------------------------------------------------

As the dqily "Chas" ("The Hour") reported on October 8, the first case
against Latvia concerning elimination of the state-supported secondary
education in minority languages scheduled for 2004 has been brought
before the European Court of Human Rights
(http://www.chas-daily.com/win/2002/10/08/l_050.html?r=30). The
applicant notes that she is against the education reform, as both
Russian teachers and pupils will are disadvantaged because of the
transition. Russian children will be in unequal condition, comparing
to Latvian children. According to the applicant, Latvia has ratified
the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms in 1997, thus accepting the right of every person
to education and teaching of his/her children in accordance with
his/her religious and philosophic views. She argues, that the basis of
her philosophical convictions is the Russian language as the medium of
Russian culture, history, religion and ethnic self-identification.
"Chas" reports that some other people are going to submit similar
applications.

The Latvian-language daily "Diena" ("The Day") interviewed lecturer of
the Riga Graduate School of Law in human rights LL.M Martins Mits on
the issue on October 11. Mr Mits reminded about analogous case
"relating to certain aspects of the laws on the use of languages in
education in Belgium" of 1968 and judgment of ECHR, that
"philosophical convictions", as understood by the European Convention
on Human Rights, do not include the right to choose the language of
instruction in schools. Thus, if this is the foundation of the claim,
it has poor chances in the Court, Mr Mits concludes. Moreover, it is
unclear whether domestic remedies are exhausted.

Our commentary

It is difficult to assess the argumentation of the application on the
basis of mere newspaper article. In our view, it would be very
problematic to solve the "education problem 2004" by purely legal
means. First of all, the Court could declare the application
inadmissible on several reasons (it is hard to prove the violation of
subjective rights until the reform is not executed; it is hard to
believe that the domestic remedies are exhausted, as there was no
information about such cases in Latvia's courts). Although the
Convention and its protocols protect the right to respect for private
and family life (Article 8), the right to education (Article 2 of the
Protocol No. 1), as well as prohibit discrimination (Article 14), ECHR
mentioned in the Belgian linguistic case (see at
http://www.minelres.lv/coe/court/Belglin.htm) that Article 8 "in no
way guarantees the right to be educated in the language of one's
parents by the public authorities or with their aid". Although the
"soft law" documents like eg The Hague Recommendations regarding the
education rights of national minorities of 1996
(http://www.minelres.lv/osce/hagrec.htm) assert the right to education
in one's mothetongue quite forcefully, this right can hardly be
successfully invoked before the court. Probably this fact should be
considered as a weakness of the modern system of minority protection.
Anyway, today the problem should be solved rather by political means.

 
Positive discrimination of Roma rejected
----------------------------------------

On October 10 the Saeima (Parliament) rejected draft amendments to the
Law "On Income Tax for Enterprises" submitted by the pro-minority
faction "HRUL". The main idea of the draft was to introduce reduced
tax for  enterprises which employ persons belonging to Roma minority.
The allowance (tax reduction) would correspond to the proportion of
employed Roma. 

The draft was rejected (15 MPs voted for, 10 against, and 42
abstained.
 
In our view, adoption of the amendments would contribute to the
integration of Roma in Latvia. As "HRUL" MP Modris Lujans said in the
parliamentary debates, approximately 80% of Roma living in Latvia are
unemployed. 
If adopted, the amendment would become the first example of positive
discrimination in respect of national minorities in Latvia.


What is written in the international documents on minority education?
---------------------------------------------------------------------

An article titled "What do international documents really say about
minority education?" written by Dr. hist. Leo Dribins, was published
on the portal of public policy www.politika.lv
(http://www.politika.lv/index.php?id=104608&lang=lv). Analysing
international documents, the author comes to conclusion that Latvian
politicians do not really understand what is written there. Dr Dribins
provides his own interpretation of international standards concerning
minority rights on education. He emphasises, inter alia, that the
Council of Europe recommends bilingual education as the model for
"reconciliation" between the state and minorities (Explanatory Report
to the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities,
p. 77 � see at http://www.minelres.lv/coe/FC_exr.htm). According to Dr
Dribins, a "wide transition to the education in the state language
which starts in the 10th form and is to be completed in the 12th form"
is the best solution for the problem, taking into account provisions
of the Framework Convention and the OSCE Hague recommendations
regarding the education rights of national minorities (see at
http://www.minelres.lv/osce/hagrec.htm).

Our commentary

We appreciate the efforts of Dr Dribins to get through the
speculations raised upon the question of the international legal basis
for minority education. Yet, trying to justify the final goal of the
state officials � to eliminate the state-supported education in
minority languages � the author bargains about the stage of the
elimination and not the substance. Besides, it would be worth
remembering that the bilingual model is already implemented at
minority schools starting with primary education.


Still no partner for dialogue with minorities
---------------------------------------------

An article titled "How to stop the political football with the
minority issues?" written by the assistant of the Ethnic Studies
Centre of the Latvian University S.Zankovska-Odina was published on
the portal of public policy www.politika.lv
(http://www.politika.lv/index.php?id=104647&lang=lv). The author is
concerned with the fact that no specific governmental institution for
minority affairs has been established so far. The author  gives
several illustrations of inadmissibility of such situation: lack of
effective dialogue with national minorities, neglect of minorities'
cultural and social problems.

In the meantime, the author foresees also a specific censorship
mission for such institution. As an example, she tells about the
intentions of a Roma organization to produce a film about
discrimination of Roma in Latvia and to send it to international
organisations. "Taking into account that the movie is very likely to
be biased, it is not permissible that this type of information is made
public without serious analysis by the state institutions", - explains
Ms.Zankovska-Odina. Finally, she points out that the institution is
needed to work out the reservations to the Framework Convention for
Protection of National Minorities.

Our commentary

We completely agree that the state institution in charge of minority
affairs is to be established in Latvia as soon as possible. The
creation of such institution is recommended also by the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe in its Resolution 1236 "Honouring of
obligations and commitments by Latvia" (see Minority issues in Latvia,
No. 24,
http://racoon.riga.lv/minelres/archive//02042001-20:31:58-6272.html).
However, we have serious doubts about the proposed functions of such
an institution. We believe that the state institution in charge of
minority affairs is to be a partner for minorities, not their
supervisor.


Private TV channel to launch news in Russian
--------------------------------------------

Private TV channel TV-5 (one which organised pre-election political
debates in Russian "The Russian Question" and proposed to abolish
quotas for broadcasting in minority languages - see Minority issues in
Latvia,
No. 56,
http://lists.delfi.lv/pipermail/minelres/2002-October/002325.html),
has launched a new project � daily TV-news in the Russian language
since October 1. We are glad that we can feel less concerned regarding
lack of information about Latvia in Russian on domestic TV (see
Minority issues in Latvia, No. 53,
http://lists.delfi.lv/pipermail/minelres/2002-August/002234.html) and
believe that the project will promote the integration of society.

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

Alexei Dimitrov
Tatyana Bogushevitch
Yuri Dubrovsky

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