Minority issues in Latvia, No. 2

No 2, June 11, 1999



Content

- Education law: discussion continues

- Riga Aviation University closed

- Court declares illegal refusal to permit meeting on Pushkin's anniversary


The 3rd reading of the Education Law took place on the 10th of June in
the Saeima (the Parliament) of Latvia (see Minority issues in Latvia,
No. 1, 06.06.99). All but one unimportant proposal of the pro-minority
coalition "For human rights in integrated Latvia" have been rejected
(including suggestions to keep state financial support for secondary
education in the minority languages and to establish a department of
minority schools within the framework of the Ministry of Education). A
proposal to extend budgetary subsudies to minorities' private schools
has also been rejected (according to the Education law currently in
force, now only private schools with the Latvian language of instruction 
are eligible for state subsidies). The Education Law hasn`t been adopted 
because of disagreements between the parties of the ruling coalition over 
allocated budget for educational institutions, and this allows more 
attemts to change the law.

***


An issue of the Statutes of the Riga Aviation University (RAU) was
discussed in the Saeima (the Parliament) on June 10. RAU is one of
nine world higher educational institutions, where future specialists
in aviation are trained. There were several attempts to close it in
Latvia within the the latest years. Financial violations  are the
formal reason, however, the real one is a multicultural environment in
this University, where students from 40 countries are studying now and
a large share of curricula is taught in Russian. Members of the
pro-minority coalition "For human rights in integrated Latvia"
consider that radical majority of the Saeima doesn`t like exactly this
possibility to get higher education in Russian. "Re-organization" (in
fact, elimination) of RAU has been approved by a considerable majority
of votes.

***


A group of persons (lawyers of Latvian Human Rights Committee Gennady
Kotov and Ilga Ozisha, member of Parliament Miroslav Mitrofanov,
member of Riga city council Sergey Dolgopolov) won a trial against
local authorities of Riga on June 9. The plaintiffs disputed the
minicipality's refusal to hold a meeting devoted to 200-year
anniversary of the greatest Russian poet Alexander Pushkin in Riga's
central park (see Minority issues in Latvia, No. 1, 06.06.99). The
Riga Ziemelu regional court ruled the prohibition to hold the meeting
illegal. It is the first precedent in Latvia when non-governmental
organizations or private persons turn out well in disputing municipal
decisions of the kind.

 
Alexei Dimitrov
Latvian Human Rights Committee (F. I. D. H.)