Recommendation 1772 (2006)

Rights of national minorities in Latvia

Author(s): Parliamentary Assembly

Origin - Text adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of the Assembly, on 17 November 2006 (see Doc. 11094, report of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, rapporteur: Mr Severin).

1. The Parliamentary Assembly draws the Committee of Ministers' attention to its Resolution 1527 (2006) on rights of national minorities in Latvia. It requests the Committee of Ministers:

1.1. to support the process of integration of national minorities in Latvia leading to the steady and quickest possible reduction of the number of non-citizens;

1.2. to encourage the implementation in Latvia of recommendations made by the Assembly, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights and by relevant bodies of other international organisations;

1.3. to encourage the Latvian authorities to take into account, in the preparation of future elections, the conclusions of the OSCE Election Observation Mission with regard to the elections held on 7 October 2006;

1.4. to offer the Latvian authorities any assistance and expertise that might be needed in order to implement Resolution 1527 (2006) as well as to consolidate a civic and multicultural Latvian society and state;

1.5. to transmit Resolution 1527 (2006) to the Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (ETS No. 157) and to the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights;

1.6. to ask the competent intergovernmental committee to consider the possibility of issuing guidelines to be observed with regard to the rights of people belonging to ethnic or cultural minorities in the event of a state’s secession, reconstitution or the emergence of a new state;

1.7. to encourage those member states that have not yet done so to sign and ratify the Council of Europe Convention on the Avoidance of Statelessness in relation to State Succession (CETS No. 200);

1.8. to observe and implement the principles, standards and requirements stated in Resolution 1527 (2006) whenever appropriate in order to ensure, while taking into consideration each country’s particularities, the same political approach, the same level of protection of minorities and the same level of inter-ethnic integration in all Council of Europe member states.