Latvia's honouring of commitments and obligations undertaken upon accession to the Council of Europe

Motion for a Resolution

Doc. 7879

9 July 1997

presented by Mr Serguei Glotov and others

1. Upon accession to the Council of Europe, Latvia undertook, as reflected in the Assembly's Opinion No. 183 (1995), the following commitments:

• relevant laws and regulations adopted in the country to be in line with generally accepted principles of the Council of Europe;
• there is to be no arbitrary discrimination between citizens and "non-citizens";
• all laws and regulations, in particular those on the use of language, to be applied without unacceptable pressure on individuals or unduly prolonged procedures.

2. There is information that many laws adopted in Latvia contain elements of discrimination on ethnic and language grounds or create conditions for their discriminatory application in a way contrary to the standards of the Council of Europe. Despite the obligation undertaken by states in many international instruments to facilitate reduction in the number of stateless persons, the Law on Nationality, and especially its implementation practices have led to a situation where about 500 000 residents of Latvia have no citizenship. The law contains provisions that put selected ethnic communities, age and professional groups in a disadvantaged position.

Due to the unresolved problem of citizenship a portion of the country's population suffers from restrictions of their right to choose their place of residence, to be engaged in political activities and represented in local self-government bodies. The laws regulating matters concerning general and local elections, civil service, election campaigns, language, immigration, police etc., tend to hamper the political, social, economic and cultural integration of minorities. As a result more than 100 000 people left the country for good between 1991 and 1996.

3. According to Latvian human rights organisations more than sixty legal regulations that discriminate against non-citizens remain in force in Latvia. They are deprived of their right to buy land, limited in their rights to privatise property and form joint stock companies, to get access to social or commercial housing, in their right to legal defence, medical assistance and pension rights.

4. It appears that the implementation of laws continues to suffer from unduly prolonged procedures. The rate of naturalisation is so slow that the majority of non-nationals do not have any chance of obtaining Latvian citizenship in the ten years to come. The OSCE Mission in Latvia has already repeatedly exposed abusive practices of the Department of Citizenship and Immigration and cumbersome resident registration procedures. Criteria for the examinations that one has to pass to obtain nationality are excessively stringent. Legal, administrative and other provisions are issued that limit the use of minority languages, including Russian, in the public and economic life, in culture and education.

5. In view of the above the Assembly hereby requests the Monitoring Committee to verify the compliance of Latvia with its commitments and obligations undertaken upon the accession to the Council of Europe and to develop recommendations in order to improve the situation and to facilitate the integration of minorities into the Latvian society.

Signed:

Glotov, Russia, UEL

Averchev, Russia, SOC

Chyzh, Ukraine, UEL

Filimonov, Russia, UEL

Jirousova, Czech Republic, UEL

Kuznetsov, Russia, EPP

Melnikov, Russia, UEL

Oleinik, Russia, UEL

Oorzhak, Russia, SOC

Ruffy, Switzerland, SOC

Ryabov, Russia, NR

Savitsky, Russia, UEL

Shishlov, Russia, LDR

Ustiugov, Russia, UEL

Vishnyakov, Russia, NR

Zhebrovsky, Russia, NR