MINELRES: Minority issues in Latvia, No. 79

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Original sender: Tatyana Bogushevitch <minissues@delfi.lv>


Minority issues in Latvia, No.79
Prepared by the Latvian Human Rights Committee (F.I.D.H.)
January 23, 2004

Content

- Education Law: breaking promises, provoking conflicts?
- EP report: some criticism on ethnic policy
- Lustration restrictions for MEPs to be abolished?
- Electoral rights for non-citizens rejected
- The Latvian First party supports Orthodox Christmas?
 

Education Law: breaking promises, provoking conflicts?
------------------------------------------------------

On January 22, the Saeima (Parliament) adopted amendments to the
Education Law concerning state-supported secondary education in minority
languages in the second reading. The amendments were submitted by the
government in order to confirm changes adopted by it in August 2003 (see
Minority issues in Latvia, No. 71). 

The wording initially suggested by the government provides that from
September 1, 2004 all state-supported secondary education must be in the
state language in accordance with the standards of the state secondary
education. After the standards were amended in May 2003, it has been
stipulated that after the end of the transition period (2004-2006), not
less than 5 subjects in minority secondary schools (besides the Latvian
language and literature) are to be taught in Latvian. Another provision
stipulates that up to 40% of the curricula could be taught in minority
languages, therefore, not less than 60% is to be taught in Latvian. Each
school can itself determine the subjects to be taught in Latvian. Since
the year 2007 all the state examinations and tests are to be passed in
Latvian. 

Before the second reading, the Parliamentary Committee on Education,
Science and Culture suggested a different wording of the amendment: the
subjects, which could be taught in minority languages, are only minority
languages themselves, as well as subjects, "related to minority identity
and culture". This amendment was proposed by MPs from the ruling
nationalistic faction "For Fatherland and Freedom"/LNNK and supported by
the Committee and Ministry of Education and Science with minor
adjustment. During debates chair of the Committee Janis Strazdinsh could
not point to the person who had drafted this amendment.

Pro-minority opposition in the Saeima strongly opposed the amendments.
They believe that the new wording does not allow the schools to use
their right to teach up to 40% of the curricula in minority languages,
because only 10-15% at best of the curricula might be considered as
related to minority identity and culture ("Vesti Segodnya" ("The News
Today"), January 15). Asked about it during debates, Minister for
Education and Science Karlis Shadurskis said that such subjects as
sports, economics, health, geography, history, etc could be taught in
minority languages. MP from the People�s Harmony Party Boris Tsilevich
said that he could hardly believe that sports or economics are essential
parts of any national minority�s identity, therefore the Minister's
version does not hold water from the point of view of both legal logic
and common sense. It is clear that the most complicated subjects (e.g.
physics or mathematics) will have to be taught in the state language, as
they do not have any link to minority identity. However, exactly the
quality of teaching sciences is the main concern of parents in
connection with the reform. Directors of several schools have already
declared that their schools will not be able to implement the reform in
a new way ("Vesti Segodnya" ("The News Today"), January 16).

It is essential to stress that since May 2003, when the governmental
regulations establishing the 60:40 proportion were adopted, all minority
schools have been working hard to elaborate their programmes meeting the
criteria, on the basis of the human and other resources at their
disposal, and have been holding tiring negotiations with the Ministry.
For most of schools, these programmes are already at quite advanced
stages of approval. Now, after the rules have been next time changed in
the middle of the game, the task is becoming impossible, indeed.

Pro-minority opposition suggested a number of amendments in order to
establish legal framework for state-supported secondary education:
- each secondary school can choose the language of instruction after
consultations with local government, 
schoolchildren and their parents;
- state examinations and tests are to be passed in the language, which
corresponding subject was taught in;
- Minority Education Department is to be established within the
framework of the Ministry;
- a child has the right to maintain the language of instruction, if
(s)he loses parents (currently all orphans are to be instructed in the
state language);
- private schools can apply for state or municipal financial support
regardless of the language of instruction (currently only private
schools with the state language of instruction are able to receive
financial support).
None of the initiatives was supported by the Saeima. 

Some days before unknown arsoners attempted to set on fire the doors of
the Ministry for Education and Science. Soon after that the Ministry
received an announcement from the national-bolshevik organisation in
Russia, which undertook responsibility for this action, as a protest
against the minority education reform. Both LASHOR (Association for
Support of Russian-language Schools in Latvia) and the Headquarters for
the support of Russian-language schools strongly condemned the arson.  

Nevertheless, the Minister for Education and Science Karlis Shadurskis
published an official statement, in which he accused all opponents of
the reform, including opposition MPs, incriminating them anti-state and
anti-constitutional actions. "Let�s stop talking that you had not burned
the Ministry, that you even do not know who national-bolsheviks are.
Their actions are the result of your sabotage and everything is on your
conscience" ("Latvijas Avize" ("The Latvian Newspaper"), January 12). In
the Minister's view, all the protest manifestations "impede integration
processes and split up society". The Minister pointed out that "everyone
must be loyal towards the state policy and obedient" ("Chas" ("The
Hour"), January 10). 

In the meantime, NGO LASHOR (Association for Support of Russian-language
Schools in Latvia) and the Headquarters for the support of
Russian-language schools continue their legal protest actions against
the minority education reform. One of them is an action �Empty Schools�
� strike of schoolchildren. The pilot strike took place in one of Riga
schools in the beginning of January. Besides, a big picket was held near
the Saeima on January 22. In February organisers of the protest actions
are going to hold a congress of opponents of the reform, parents
committees set up in each school will take part in the congress.

As we mentioned in the previous issue of our newsletter, the
nationalistic ruling parliamentary faction "For Fatherland and
Freedom"/LNNK declared its intention to suggest legislative amendments
stipulating that only citizens of Latvia could work as teachers (see
Minority issues in Latvia, No. 78). The initiative was supported by head
of the Naturalisation Board Eizenija Aldermane ("Latvijas Avize" ("The
Latvian Newspaper"), January 6).

Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights and Public Affairs
Ina Druviete suggested to establish that teachers are civil servants;
"it would mean that they would have to be citizens, but it would not be
a professional ban for non-citizens" ("Latvijas Avize" ("The Latvian
Newspaper"), December 24). The Ministry is ready to introduce such
reform in respect of schools� directors and deputy directors; it means
that the Ministry, not local governments (school�s founders), would
appoint these persons ("Chas" ("The Hour"), January 15). This idea is
supported also by the President of Latvia Vaira Vike-Freiberga ("Chas"
("The Hour"), January 17). However, its implementation would cost
approx. LVL 1,2 millions (EUR 2 millions) already at the first stage
("Diena" ("The Day"), January 20). 

According to data provided by the Ministry of Education and Science,
approximately 3,000 out of 33,000 teachers are not citizens of Latvia
("Latvijas Avize" ("The Latvian Newspaper"), January 12). Among
directors, 20 out of more than 1,000 are non-citizens ("Chas" ("The
Hour"), January 15).

The minority community perceived the new developments with the education
reform as a clear violation of the government�s promises solemnly given
both to international organizations and national minorities themselves. 

In just recent weeks, both high-ranking official of the Ministry of
Education ("Chas" ("The Hour"), January 6), and the minister Shadurskis
himself in a popular Russian-language TV broadcast "From the position of
power" ("Chas" ("The Hour"), January 10) assured the Russian-speaking
audience that no further restrictions for using minority languages in
education will be made. The headlines of the media comments to the
Saeima's decision published next day are revealing: "We are deceived.
Empty schools ahead" ("Chas" ("The Hour"), January 23), "The Catcher in
the Lie" - paraphrasing J.D.Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye"
("Telegraf" ("The Telegraph", January 23). Even the Latvian-language
opinion-maker daily "Diena", usually supportive of the minority
education reform, reacted with the critical comment of its staff
columnist A.Rodins titled "Deception" ("Diena" ("The Day"), January
23).  

Spontaneous picket has been held near the Ministry of Education the next
day after the adoption of the new amendments. Around 2,000 youngsters
from at least 7 Riga schools declared they are on strike, and, instead
of attending lessons, came to the Ministry's building, and then marched
through Old Riga to the embassies of EU states. What should be stressed
particularly is that no one of NGOs or political parties opposing the
reform organized the rally. 

Our commentary

As regards the status of civil servants for schools' officials, it would
be naive to hope that such bodies as the UN Human Rights Committee or
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, would not find
the real aim and nature of this "reform". These bodies already pointed
out last year that a number of differences
between citizens and non-citizens is to be diminished (see Minority
issues in Latvia, No. 72 and No. 77).

It is difficult to explain why the Ministry of Education and Science
does not fulfil its promises and strives to even further diminish
permitted share of instruction in minority languages. Maybe the Ministry
perceived the 60%:40% proportion as a temporary concession and never
intended to implement it, despite it widely advertised "the compromise"
in international organisations. Another option is that the proposal of
nationalists is adopted in exchange for their consent to abolish
political restrictions in the electoral legislation (see below).

Maybe the Ministry perceives new amendments as a revenge for the action
of national-bolsheviks or even for the protest campaign against the
reform in general.

The last weeks' events can be summarized as follows: the government
turned to tightening minority education policies, withdrawing from even
very limited concessions it agreed to make last year. All opponents of
the reform are flatly labelled as enemies of the state and of the
society integration, a natural willingness to be educated primarily in
mothertongue is declared to be an anti-Latvian activity and sabotage. It
seems that the policy of repressions is chosen as the main argument in
"dialogue", increasing pressure on the school directors and making them
even more dependent on the government. 

This sudden change inevitably triggers sharp growth of tensions in the
society of Latvia. Those parents belonging to linguistic minorities, who
so far refrained from active participation in protest actions and tended
to agree with the slow and gradual streamlining of the rules stipulated
in the regulations of May 2003, feel clearly deceived now, and will
probably join the mass rallies and other forms of protest. Moreover,
LASHOR (Association for Support of Russian-language Schools in Latvia),
the Headquarters for the support of Russian-language schools, as well as
pro-minority political parties are getting increasingly perceived as
"too shy" and "toothless", and the methods used by them (i.e.
parliamentary activities, petitions, mass rallies organized in
accordance with the law, etc.) as obviously ineffective. The mainstream
ethnic Latvian political parties state that the protest activities are
"incited and orchestrated" by minority NGO and party activists, who wish
to raise their popularity and "apparently fulfil orders from Moscow".
Some isolated minority activists, indeed, try to capitalize on the
painful problem. However, in our view, the situation in general tends to
be the opposite: these NGOs and political parties try to organize
spontaneous protest activities of parents and schoolchildren along legal
lines in accordance with the democratic standards, but are less and less
able to do this since the government's hipocricy and refusal from
dialogue undermines the people's belief in possible effectiveness of
such methods. 

Last but not least, the government's behaviour is not fair towards
international organizations. Its officials more than once assured the
Council of Europe, the OSCE, the European Parliament and the Commission,
etc, that the share of minority language in education will not be
reduced. Attempts to prove that the adopted provision of the law does
not contradict the widely advertised regulations of May 2003 � i.e. to
prove that subjects like sports, business, economics, or even sciences
and maths can be considered "related to minority identity", sound
awkward, to say the least. We wonder if the international organizations
mentioned above will tolerate such an attitude towards them � leave
alone the government's attitude towards its state�s minority community.  
 

EP report: some criticism on ethnic policy
------------------------------------------

The Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and
Defence Policy of the European Parliament has started examination of the
draft Report on the comprehensive monitoring report of the European
Commission on the state of preparedness for EU membership of accession
countries. 

Co-rapporteur in respect of Latvia MEP Elisabeth Schroedter (Verts/ALE)
pays attention to minority issues too. She believes that EP should be
concerned about the situation of people in Latvia suffering from poverty
and social exclusion who, despite being long-time inhabitants of the
country, have no clear status due to changes in citizenship legislation
and are held without any access to free legal aid in the prison-like
Olaine detention centre; consequently urge the Latvian authorities to
immediately grant these people a status of residence and make efforts to
integrate them into Latvian society; call for the Latvian authorities to
take humane decisions in the area of asylum and migration policy based
on the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

Besides, the rapporteur recognises that citizenship, language and
education policies in their legal framework have been brought into line
with international standards; calls, however, on the Latvian authorities
to ensure bilingual education during school age, including the final
exams, according to the current rules, which envisage 60% of teaching in
the state language and 40% in the minority language, and stresses the
necessity of maintaining adequate scope for minority language teaching;
considers that flexible application of the education law could
contribute to social and economic integration of the Russian-speaking
minority in Latvian society and promote dialogue so as to soften
tensions with this minority, which represents a significant part of the
population. In her view, EP should estimate that the naturalisation of
the Russian-speaking part of society is continuing very slowly and that
the Latvian authorities would take a step forward with integration of
minorities if the naturalisation process were not linked to language
training, especially for elderly people; encourage the Latvian
authorities to overcome the existing split in society and to favour the
genuine integration of "non-citizens", ensuring that minorities have an
equal competitive chance in education and labour; call on the Latvian
authorities to envisage the possibility of allowing non-citizens who are
long-time inhabitants to take part in local self-government elections;
welcome the continuing dialogue between representatives of government
and civil society regarding the ratification of the Council of Europe�s
Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities as well
as the establishment of a specific sub-commission on society integration
in the Saeima's Human Rights Commission; recommend the Latvian
authorities to ratify quickly this Framework Convention.

A number of politicians claim that the paragraphs on ethnic and
integration policy in Latvia are ill-founded, therefore should be
changed. As media report, also chairman of the EP Committee Elmar Brok
(PPE-DE) said that some statements should be softened ("Diena" ("The
Day"), January 22). However, the rapporteur herself said in the
interview to Latvian media, that all her statements are absolutely
accurate and double-checked, and that it is impossible to exert any
political pressure on her ("Vesti Segodnya" ("The News Today", January
16).


Lustration restrictions for MEPs to be abolished?
-------------------------------------------------

As we reported in the previous issue of our newsletter (see Minority
issues in Latvia, No. 78), lustration restrictions for former
Communists, KGB agents and other opponents of the national independence
were introduced into the draft Law on the Elections to the European
Parliament in the second reading. However, the Parliamentary Committee
on Legal Affairs has suggested to abolish them in the third reading.
Thus, the restrictions will be discussed during the plenary session of
the Saeima.

In fact, the decision of the Committee was inspired by an "insurgency"
of human rights lawyers. Representative of the government to
international human rights institutions Inga Reine, director of the
National Human Rights Office Olafs Bruvers, lecturer of the Riga
Graduate School of Law Martins Mits and Latvian judge of the European
Court of Human Rights Egils Levits proved that the restrictions cannot
be introduced without legal ground. Besides, the Minister for Justice
Aivars Aksenoks sent MPs a letter, where pointed out that the
restrictions could lead to actions in international human institutions.
He referred to Resolution 1096(1996) of the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe on measures to dismantle the heritage of former
communist totalitarian systems.

After that even chair of the Committee Solvita Aboltina (New Era party)
said that the restrictions would be ill-founded ("Latvijas Avize" ("The
Latvian Newspaper"), January 20). Some weeks ago she advocated them
strongly (see Minority issues in Latvia, No. 77).

It should be mentioned that Representative of the government to
international human rights institutions Inga Reine becomes a
"troublemaker" for MPs for the second time. In December she stated that
amendments to the Law "On the Status of Former USSR Citizens, Who are
not Citizens of Latvia or Any Other State", which would allow to deprive
persons living abroad of the status of non-citizen (see Minority issues
in Latvia, No. 76), could not comply with human rights standards. Chair
of the Committee on Legal Affairs Solvita Aboltina and chair of the
Committee on Human Rights and Public Affairs Ina Druviete declared that
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should assess Reine's work, as they were
not sure, whether Ms Reine supports the official position. "Legal things
are important, but emotionally historical things are important too", Mrs
Aboltina mentioned ("Latvijas Avize" ("The Latvian Newspaper"), December
24).
 

Electoral rights for non-citizens rejected
------------------------------------------

The Saeima (Parliament) has rejected a number of draft laws, including
amendments to the Constitution, which would allow non-citizens to
participate in municipal elections ("Chas" ("The Hour"), January 16).
The drafts were submitted by the pro-minority faction "For Human Rights
in United Latvia".

The Saeima has already adopted some amendments in order to make it
possible for citizens of the European Union to participate and to be
elected in municipal elections in Latvia. Yet, as the MPs point out,
there have been nothing said about non-citizens (more than 20% of
residents, who came to Latvia during the Soviet period and have not got
naturalised). "Two UN Committees, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe and other organisations recommend to allow non-citizens to
participate in municipal elections. But Latvian authorities keep
ignoring them", told MP Vladimir Buzayev ("Vesti Segodnya" ("The News
Today"), January 13). 

This initiative is very topical, as the European Parliament has adopted
the resolution on the Communication from the Commission on immigration,
integration and employment. In the resolution EP welcomes the inclusion
in the Communication of the concept of civic citizenship, enabling third
country nationals legally resident in the EU to enjoy a status
conferring on them economic, social and political rights and duties,
including the right to vote in local and European elections.

 
The Latvian First party supports Orthodox Christmas?
----------------------------------------------------

Representatives of the ruling Latvian First party met with the Russian
Orthodox Church priests to discuss topical political and public issues,
including minority education reform ("Telegraf" ("The Telegraph"),
December 24). Yet, the issue of making the Orthodox Christmas (January
7) an official holiday became topical. As Mr Jekabsons, vice-chairman of
the Saeima, pointed out, the state�s obliging attitude is necessary in
order to establish Orthodox Christmas as the official holiday. The
Latvian First party�s representatives also recommended Orthodox
believers to popularise this idea. 
 
Our commentary

In our view, this initiative can be evaluated as just another populist
attempt to gain support from the Russian Orthodox believers. Most
likely, this idea will be left without any attention by its initiators.
Corresponding amendments to the Law on Holidays, Commemoration Days and
Celebratory Days have been submitted by pro-minority opposition several
times and rejected by the majority of the Parliament.
 

Compiled by:

Tatyana Bogushevitch
Alyona Babitch
Julia Baranovska

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