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Minority issues in Latvia

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A bi-weekly electronic newsletter
Published by the Latvian Human Rights Committee (F.I.D.H.)
Issued since June 1999

Year 2002 Year 1999 Year 2000 Year 2001 Year 2003 Year 2004

- The OSCE Mission to Latvia closed - Dispute over the language requirements for deputy candidates: the first results from the group of experts - The Constitutional Court has announced its judgment in the Mentzen case - The first grants of the Society Integration Foundation allocated - The police will have to keep translating all documents of criminal cases into Latvian - Fail to monitor spending of the funds allocated to the Roma Association - The Human Rights Day in Latvia - Anti-Semitic letters to MP - Evolution of the President's 'language initiatives' - The Education Law: a 'sacred cow' - Riga's ex-mayor insults Russians - The Orthodox Christmas to become an official holiday? - MP calls for restriction of the rights of the naturalised citizens - 'Shadow leader' of radical nationalists on positive discrimination - 'The Crisis of the Monologue Culture' - new article at the portal of public politics - Protests against placement of a military radar in Eastern Latvia - Notorious leader of the Latvian National Front declares integration of the society a crime - The President's 'language initiatives' declined by MPs - so far? - The Commission on the State Language begins functioning - The European Court of Human Rights considers 'the Slivenko case' - Saeima to ratify the European Convention on Nationality with substantial reservations - Next conference on integration in Latvia: a dialogue without a partner - First study of discrimination by ethnic origin in Latvia - Compilation of a 'Registry of Russian taxpayers' suggested - Left extremists try to register their party - New publication: Estonia, Latvia and the European Commission’s Recommendations on the Language Regulation in 1999-2001 - The OSCE Mission to Latvia finishes its projects - The President's 'language initiatives' - a lull before a storm? - The Commission on the State Language: 'old story' repeated - Latvian citizenship on sale? - 'Diena': Money makes the integration go slow - Minority schoolchildren choose the Russian language of instruction - The language issue mars the schoolchildren competition on physics - Linguistic protectionism vs fair competition in taxation policies - Conference on the role of minority cultural associations in the cultural integration - Is NATO appeal for democracy to be heard in Latvia? - Draft 'language amendments' to the Constitution elaborated - 'Language alert' in Daugavpils - MPs debate personal name spelling and ethnicity record - One more case of personal name spelling considered by court - Head of the Integration Board advocates ratification of the Framework Convention - No corpus delicti declared in 'Klementyev case' - How multiculturalism might be understood in Latvia
- Draft 'language amendments' to the Constitution forwarded to Saeima's committees - 'Diena': OSCE does not put a judgment on Latvia's minority education policy and non-citizens' voting rights - The Commission on the State Language visits Latvia's towns - Prime Minister: the Framework Convention will be ratified as soon as all EU member states ratify it - Private radio station's licence not extended because of 'language violations' - The Orthodox Christmas not to become an official holiday - The Naturalisation Board meets the Russian-language media - 'HRUL' announces the competition of essays about integration - ODIHR Director speaks about official status for Russian - Draft 'language amendments' to the Constitution adopted in the first reading - Saeima considers new political and language restrictions for municipal officials - Committee of the European Parliament presents draft report on enlargement - Latvians say 'no' to EU accession - The Cabinet extends the rights of the language inspectors; submits report to CERD - Society Integration Foundation: profanation of integration? - European Court of Human Rights: application Shevanova v. Latvia partly admissible - March 16: democracy on export? - Latvian Centre for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies presents annual report - Ingrida Podkolzina wins the first case against Latvia in the ECHR - Draft 'language amendments' to the Constitution adopted in the second reading - Naturalisation to be resumed - The Cabinet of Ministers considers language restrictions for some professions - 600,000th passport of non-citizens - an occasion for celebration? - Doubtful survey conducted by young nationalists - Minority youth will collect signatures in support of education in mothertongue - 'Diena': Russian-language press does not promote integration - politika.lv: on the way to 'two-community society' - Pro-minority coalition awards authors of the best essays about integration - LCHRES: integration and minority information available via e-mail - 'Language amendments' to the Constitution adopted - Prime Minister urges ruling coalition to start working on amendments to the election legislation - Naturalisation is still suspended - New language requirements for employees in private sphere discussed - Language issues in pre-election context - Riga municipal officials consider State Language Law too liberal? - Minister of education: 2004 reform would be lengthy - Public TV broadcasting in minority languages: unclear future - Applications from Latvia in ECHR - Ratification of the Framework Convention: clashing views - Nationalistic youth organisation provokes conflict on May 9 - Language requirements for deputy candidates abolished - Minister for Justice: the state should not regulate language usage in private sphere - Chairperson of the Commission on the State Language lobbies more funding for state language agencies - Naturalisation will go on - The President of Latvia: some schools do not know where to find Latvian-speaking teachers, but that will not impede the reform - Speaker of the Saeima attacks bilingualism and Simon Wiesenthal Centre - The economic value of the Latvian language has to be enhanced artificially - From injustice to violence: a short path? - Politician and oligarch: only practical measures can improve the state language situation
- European Parliament on minority issues in Latvia - New "language initiatives" in legislation - Law on IDs adopted - Discussion about minority education in Daugavpils - Draft report on implementation of ICCPR elaborated - National Human Rights Office reports about its activities - 2nd Latvian Roma Congress: a part of pre-election campaign? - The Russian-language press in Latvia: biased and "anti-state"? - Russian and Latvian extreme nationalists united - One more conference on integration - LCHRES: seminar on the Framework Convention - Latvian Association of Russian Culture celebrates its 10th anniversary - Article about the nowadays accent of the Jewish theme in Latvia - The portal of the Latvian public policy: now also in English - Ministry of Education is about to ignore the Education Law? - Information campaign about naturalisation completed - Both European and Russian MPs recommend Latvia to change policies towards the Russian-speakers - Vice-chair of the State Language Commission: integration should be based on the Latvian language - The Cabinet to determine the place for original form of personal names in IDs - Teacher proves her state language proficiency in court - European Youth Convention: opposition not welcomed - New study of extremism in Latvia - ECMI holds a workshop on integration in Latvia and Estonia - 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 - Enforcement of bilingual education: support to appear highly overestimated - Naturalisation goes on very slowly - Power of the National Council on Radio and TV extended - Website on minority names' spelling created - On-line discussion of popular daily on minority education - Experts discuss activities of the Parliament in the field of human rights and education - Popular Latvian-language daily launches monthly supplement on integration - Exhibition devoted to the Latvian Roma community - PACE Monitoring Committee postpones vote on reopening of the monitoring of Latvia - First study of ethnic discrimination in Latvia published - 3rd Parents' conference for education in Russian - Can non-citizens work as firemen? - Draft law on new political and language restrictions for municipal officials rejected - Refugees will be taught Latvian free of charge; what about minorities? - New publications of the Latvian Centre for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies - Minority issues No. 54 - the follow-up
- Outgoing parliament: pro-minority legislative initiatives rejected - Pre-election TV debates: minority issues - Information about elections: in Latvian only - Private TV: Russian viewers are to be addressed in Russian - Conference on national minorities and NATO - Street name signs in minority languages - allowed or prohibited? - NGO offers free Latvian language training - Does ethnic origin affect political choice? - 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 - Elections in Latvia: ethnic voting or ethnic parties? - Position of the Minister for Integration proposed - Eleven years of statelessness: unsolved problems - New Immigration Law: language exams introduced - Naturalisation: what about pregnant women? - Language training programme: state policy vs. real problems - Regulations on language requirements in private sphere revoked - Language quotas on private radio will be abolished? - Can a non-citizen belong to minority? - NGOs' recommendations for new government's declaration: minority issues - New government approved: some statements on ethnic policy - The Minister for Integration: in search for a candidate - Minority opposition prevented from speaking in the European Parliament - Can the oath to protect the state language be undemocratic? - Officials of the Riga City Council violate the State Language Law - First conviction for incitement to ethnic and racial hatred - Language training free of charge for naturalisation applicants - Survey on different aspects of integration - Conference on the Framework Convention: shadow report on Latvia presented - Latvian Roma: a socially psychological portray - 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