Doc. 10482

29 March 2005

Education reform and problems with observance of the national minorities rights in Latvia

Motion for a resolution

presented by Mr Elo and others

      When discussing Latvia's fulfillment of its commitments as a member state of the Council of Europe (Resolution 1236 (2001)), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe called on the Latvian authorities to adopt a number of high-priority measures to protect the rights of national minorities. The key obligations of Latvia pursuant to the Resolution have never been fulfilled.

      Pursuant to sub-paragraph 5.i of Resolution 1236 (2001) Latvia still has to ratify the Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities. The Latvian authorities repeatedly confirmed that they were prepared to make this step. However, the Assembly cannot disregard the fact that the Latvian Saeima plans to accompany the ratification of this founding document with some reservations that would erode the essence of the Convention with the view of taking a big part of national minorities out of its scope.

      Sub-paragraphs 5.iv and 5.v of Resolution 1236 (2001) bind Latvia to adopt a law on protection of national and language minorities as well as to make amendments to the active legislation, namely to the Law on Language and the Law on Education in compliance with the provisions and spirit of the Framework Convention. This has not been done yet.

      Moreover, the education reform in Latvia launched in September 2004 despite mass protests of the non-Latvian population and recommendations of human rights organizations, has significantly limited the right of national minorities to education in their native tongue. The statistical data of the Ministry of Education and Science of Latvia show a significant deterioration of progress in studies at non-Latvian schools. 56,8 % of students of the elementary school and 44,5 % of the secondary school get 1-6 scores for their command of the Latvian language (which corresponds to a "C"). This means that at least 44,5 % of students cannot master sciences taught in the state language, which applies both to the humanities and polytechnic subjects. According to the experts, Latvia does not have a systematic approach to education. The standards and programmes are developed not by teachers, but by politically biased officials. Textbooks are methodologically incorrect and are full of inaccuracies. The reform is being implemented at a time of overall deep crisis of the education sector.

      The scale and nature of protest activities of national minorities prove lack of desire of the Latvian authorities to start an open dialogue on the Law on Education as required by paragraph 3 of Resolution 1236 (2001). According to independent sources, in a number of cases Latvian law-enforcement agencies resorted to intimidation an repressions against most active members of the protest movement.

      Thus, the situation with the rights of national minorities in Latvia, and especially the right to education, still shows an number of alarming trends and determines the Assembly's need to carry out an in-depth study of the current situation in order to give an objective evaluation of the existing problems and to work out recommendations on how to eliminate them on the basis of relevant pan-European principles and standards.

Signed ¹:

ELO, Mikko, Finland, SOC

ATEŞ, Abdülkadir, Turkey, SOC

BINDIG, Rudolf, Germany, SOC

CHERNYSHENKO, Igor, Russia, EDG

CHRISTODOULIDES, Doros, Cyprus, UEL

de PUIG, Lluís Maria, Spain, SOC

EINARSSON, Mats, Sweden, UEL

FEDOROV, Valeriy, Russia, EDG

FOMENKO, Alexander, Russia, UEL

GARDETTO, Jean-Charles, Monaco, EPP/CD

GROSS, Andreas, Switzerland, SOC

HANCOCK, Michael, United Kingdom, LDR

KOROBEYNIKOV, Anatoliy, Russia, SOC

KOSACHEV, Konstantin, Russia, EDG

MARGELOV, Mikhail, Russia, EDG

McNAMARA, Kevin, United Kingdom, SOC

PAPADIMITRIOU, Elsa, Greece, EPP/CD

RAKHANSKY, Anatoliy, Ukraine, UEL

SUDARENKOV, Valeriy, Russia, SOC

VERMOT-MANGOLD, Ruth-Gaby, Switzerland, SOC

VIS, Rudolf, United Kingdom, SOC

¹        SOC: Socialist Group

      EPP/CD: Group of the European People’s Party

      LDR : Liberal, Democratic and Reformers’ Group

      EDG: European Democratic Group

      UEL: Group of the Unified European Left

      NR: not registered in a group