LATVIA PRESENTS REPORT TO COMMITTEE ON ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

AFTERNOON

HR/CERD/99/47
11 August 1999






The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination began consideration this afternoon of a report from Latvia, with a Government delegation telling the Committee’s Experts that after 50 years of Soviet rule, Latvia had “a rather traumatized society” struggling to achieve individual freedoms and deal with democratic responsibilities.

Presenting the report, Romans Baumanis, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Latvia to the United Nations Office at Geneva, said that when Latvia's sovereignty was restored in 1991, the self-identification measures enacted affected several hundred thousand Soviet-era settlers who had voluntarily moved or had been settled in Latvia as part of a deliberate Soviet policy to dilute the Latvian national identity.

Ion Diaconu, the Committee Expert who served as country rapporteur for the report of Latvia, said that one-fourth of the country's inhabitants had been deemed non-citizens, and that obstacles to attaining citizenship were exorbitant -- that the system according to which citizenship would be extended to such inhabitants would need 200 years to carry out. Only 11,432 persons had received citizenship over the last four years, he said.

The following Committee members also participated in the discussion:
Michael E. Sherifis, Ivan Garvalov, Shanti Sadiq Ali, Deci Zou, Luis Valencia Rodriguez, Rodiger Wolfrum, Regis de Gouttes and Theodoor van Boven.

Other members of the delegation of Latvia were Kristine Malinovska, Director of the Legal Department of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia; Vija Jakobsone, Deputy Chairman of Latvian Bar Association; Raimonds Jansons, Counsellor for Human Rights Questions of the Permanent Mission of Latvia at Geneva; Guna Japina, member of the Drafting Group of the report and Consular Officer at Latvia's Embassy in Bonn; Janis Mazeiks, Deputy Head of the Section for International Organizations at the Foreign Ministry; and Eizenija Aldermane, Head of the Naturalization Board of Latvia.

As one of 155 States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Latvia must submit periodic reports to the Committee on efforts to implement the treaty.

When the Committee reconvenes at 10 a.m. Thursday, 12 August, it will continue its consideration of the report of Latvia.


Report of Latvia

The initial, second and third periodic reports of Latvia, all contained in document CERD/C/309/Add.1, enumerate the administrative and legislative measures taken by the Government to implement the provisions of the Convention on article-by-article basis. The document says there is no special law prohibiting racial discrimination in Latvia. However, Latvian laws do contain norms prohibiting discrimination as defined in the Convention.

The report states that the right of all people residing in the Republic of Latvia to equal treatment before the courts irrespective of their race or ethnicity is guaranteed by the laws of the country. The Constitutional law "The Rights and Obligations of a Citizen and a Person" of 1991 determines the rights and obligations of every resident of Latvia towards the State and society.

Presentation of Report

ROMANS BAUMANIS, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Latvia to the United Nations Office at Geneva, recalled that after 50 years of illegal Soviet rule, Latvia had inherited a rather traumatized society, which now faced individual freedoms and responsibilities. When Latvia's sovereignty was restored in 1991, the problem of citizenship was easily settled by the application of the principle of ius sanguinis. However, this self-identification measure was not without negative effect on those several hundred thousand Soviet-era settlers who had voluntarily moved or had been settled in Latvia as part of a deliberate Soviet policy to dilute the Latvian national identity.

Mr. Baumanis said the country's Constitution provided for the democratic State of Latvia in addition to its provisions guaranteeing the human rights of citizens. International human-rights treaties approved by the country's Parliament were directly applicable within the domestic legal system. They overrode norms of statutory law in the event of conflict.

Mr. Baumanis affirmed that every individual lawfully in Latvia could enjoy the protection offered by the country’s legal framework without discrimination.

Mr. Baumanis said Latvia had a good record of cooperation with various international experts and organizations, in particular the United Nations, the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The rapid economic and democratic transformation of the country might be even more effectively pursued through membership in the European Union, he said, adding that European integration had been given a high priority by the Government.

Discussion

ION DIACONU, the Committee Expert who served as country rapporteur for the report of Latvia, said that by the time it established its independence in 1991, Latvia, after 50 years under the Soviet regime, found itself confronted with important political, economic, and demographic changes as compared to the situation in 1941. At present, Latvia was endeavouring to re-establish its sovereign State and its identity through a major economic, legislative and political transformation. Although the country was on the right track in discharging its international obligations, much remained to be done with regard to the Convention and other human-rights treaties.

Turning to the issue of ethnic groups living in Latvia, Mr. Diaconu emphasized the necessity of integrating the importantly high number of Russians, Ukrainians and Belorussians into Latvian society. The policy chosen by the Government consisted of establishing precise criteria in matters of naturalization except for persons who had resided in Latvia before June 1940 and their descendants, who were recognized de jure as citizens. That policy had created, and continued to create, a number of difficulties which hampered the application of the provisions of the Convention.

Mr. Diaconu said that following the law of October 1991, the majority of persons lacking any status of citizenship in Latvia were members of minorities. As the Government itself recognized in the report it presented, there had been problems between citizens and non-citizens. He wondered if the policy opted for by the Government had not created a discriminatory situation for the members of minorities by depriving them of the rights enjoyed by other citizens. Members of these minorities had their residences in the country and they had not arrived recently. According to the report there were still 650,000 non-citizens in Latvia who belonged to various minorities and who composed one-fourth of the total population of 2.4 million.

Mr. Diaconu recalled that successive Latvian Governments had attempted to alleviate some of the difficulties of the naturalization procedure following criticism by European organizations and internal protesters. Nevertheless, the obligations of language knowledge for the naturalization process were still considered to be exorbitant and the rhythm according to which citizenship was bestowed meant it would take 200 years to solve the problem. Only 11,432 persons had received citizenship over the last four years.

Other Committee members also put questions to the Latvian delegation on such issues as the practice of segregation; voting rights of residents; the status of the Convention in domestic law; consequences of deliberate incitement to racial discrimination; dissemination of the report; and Latvia's intention about recognizing the Committee's competence to receive individual complaints.

An Expert asked the delegation to provide information on criminal cases cited in the report. The report said that in August 1995, criminal charges were brought against an individual for the publication and distribution of Adolph Hitler's book, "Mein Kampf". According to the report, the investigation begun in relation the criminal case had not yet been completed. Another case still pending had been initiated in April 1998 on the basis of an evidently racially motivated inscription on the wall of a Synagogue in the capital city, Riga. Another Expert sought more clarification on Latvia's Law of Citizenship.