Minority issues in Latvia, No. 7

 
September 10, 1999


Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination: Latvia
 
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination adopted
the concluding observations on Latvia`s periodic reports.

The Committee notes with satisfaction the following main positive aspects:


Latvia has achieved a substantial level of social stability, made
important progress in the area of legislative reform. International
treaties have constitutional status in domestic legislation. A new
chapter in the Constitution on "Fundamental Human Rights" has been
adopted;
a number of restrictions that had been applied to non-citizens have
been lifted;
a national dialogue on such issues as differences in treatment of
citizens and non-citizens, amendment of the Citizenship Law and the
Framework Document for a National Programme on the Integration of
Society has begun.


The main subjects of concern are:

the absence of a legal provision explicitly defining racial
discrimination;
no case of dissemination of ideas of ethnic superiority or hatred,
or of the use of defamatory language or the advocacy of violence based
on such ideas has been brought to justice, and no organization
involved in such activities has been prohibited, although the
existence of such cases has been widely reported;
more than 25% of the resident population aren`t citizens of Latvia,
and the naturalization process remains slow;
the situation of persons who do not qualify for citizenship under
the Citizenship Law and who are also not registered as residents (such
persons may not be protected against discrimination in their exercise
of the rights in spheres of free movement, choosing the residence,
crossing the borders, as well as in economical, social and cultural
spheres);
differences of treatment between citizens and non-citizens in the
enjoyment of economical, social and cultural rights;
passports for non-citizens are being issued at an unreasonably slow
pace, but the old passports are no longer valid for travel;
the legislation of Latvia requires a person`s ethnic origin to be
recorded in his or her passport;
the difficulties hampering the operation of the National Human
Rights Office;
instruction in minority languages may be reduced in the near future.


The main suggestions and recommendations are:

to take into account in Latvia`s legislation the definition of
racial discrimination in line with article 1(1) of the International
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination;
to include in future reports information on cases brought to justice
and their outcome;
to streamline the process of naturalization;
to regularize as soon as possible the status of persons who do not
qualify for citizenship and are not registered as residents;
to review the differences of treatment between citizens and
non-citizens;
to reconsider the requirement to record ethnic origin in passports;
to solve problems facing the National Human Rights Office and
include information about its activities to the next periodic report;
to maintain the possibility to receive an education in languages of
various ethnic groups or to study those languages, as well as to use
mother tongue in private and in public;
to train judges and other members of the legal profession in
international human rights standards;
to spread widely the concluding observations, as well as Latvia`s
report in Latvian and Russian.

The full text of the concluding observations and of  the state report 
of Latvia are available online at the UN website. 

The Latvian Human Rights Committee welcomes these Concluding
observations. At the same time we are unpleasantly surprised with the
attitude of some Latvia's officials who claim that the Committee on
the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is "incompetent" and "was
using the obsolete information".

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