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The political composition of parliament tions on former KGB officials to stand as and government changed little after the candidates for election were constitutional, October general elections, but the pre-elec- but made an exception for Juris Bojars, the tion period contributed to the harshening former head of the Latvian Social Demo- of rhetoric and policies regarding citizen- cratic Workers’ Party, due to his personal ship. New state institutions relating to hu- history as a supporter of Latvian independ- man rights were being created during 2006 ence in 1991 and as a former MP. but concern was voiced that their authority Concerning “lustration” on grounds of and independence could potentially be affiliation with the Soviet Communist Party, threatened by political interference. the 16 March judgment by the Grand Progress in some areas - such as the Chamber of the European Court for Hu- reduced use of pre-trial detention and man Rights (ECtHR) overturned the 2004 Constitutional Court rulings annulling un- ECtHR judgment in the case of Tatyana constitutional laws adopted by parliament Zhdanoka,2 who had been banned from - were shadowed by worrisome develop- running for election. The Grand Chamber ments in other areas, including the aggres- argued that her right had not been violat- sive expression of intolerance on grounds ed since the prohibition was seen as falling of race and sexual orientation. within the margin of appreciation of the state, taking into account the vulnerability Elections of Latvia stemming from the complex his- A voter turnout of 61% in the 7 Octo- tory of occupation. However, the decision ber parliamentary elections was the lowest included a clear cautioning that such re- since independence and down from 71% strictions on candidacy must be under in 2002. Of the 19 parties and alliances “constant review with a view to bringing it registered for participation, seven passed to an early end.” the five-percent barrier, with the ruling coalition’s leading party – the People’s Par- National protection of human rights ty - receiving 23 out of the 100 mandates. Ombudsman institution Nineteen percent of the members of par- On 6 April the Law on Ombudsman liament were women, 78% were Latvian, was adopted and it entered into force on and 15% Russian.1 1 January 2007. The ombudsman is to re- The elections were acknowledged as place the National Human Rights Office free and fair, but there were several allega- (NHRO), retaining its predecessor’s gener- tions of vote purchasing, and criminal in- al human rights mandate, but broadening vestigations regarding voting districts in it to include all good governance issues. Latgale and Kurzeme were initiated. As a Apart from the concern over the difficulties result of the interpretation of the state lan- the NHRO had already had to fulfill its guage law, the Central Election Committee broad mandate, there were also serious did not provide any official information in concerns over the new institution’s inde- other languages than Latvian, despite the pendence, the lack of leadership, and the significant number of Russian-speaking vo- provision of the new law allowing any five ters, although such information was avail- members of parliament to propose a can- able through the Russian-language media. didate or to initiate an ombudsman’s re- As in previous elections, issues sur- moval from office. Discussion of potential rounding “lustration” appeared. The Consti- candidates had barely started by the very tutional Court ruled on 15 June in a case end of the year. On a positive note, in combining two applications that the restric- December a budget was adopted for the

Researched an written by the Latvian Centre for Human Rights. For more details, and on other human rights issues, see the report Human Rights in Latvia in 2006, available at www.humanrights.org.lv. 104 LATVIA ombudsman’s office that was almost ly any protests were staged on ethnic minor- quadrupling the budget of the NHRO. ity issues, the planned “Riga Pride 2006” gay On 14 December, the parliament ap- event triggered controversy. proved three Constitutional Court judges, ◆ The Riga municipality refused to issue who had been skeptically received by ex- a permit for “Riga Pride” scheduled for 22 perts and were not recommended for ap- July, a decision upheld by the Administra- proval by the legal committee, thus adding tive District Court that cited security con- concerns over the future independence of cerns based on classified information. The this court. court’s decision was appealed and is due for review in 2007. Ill-treatment and other police mis- conduct Twenty opposition parliamentarians successfully challenged in the Constitutio- The year 2006 saw the first case of nal Court’s several restrictive amendments significant compensation being paid for to the 2005 law on meetings, marches police mistreatment. and pickets. On 23 November, the court ◆ On 9 October, the Civil Law Chamber declared several provisions on the amend- of the Supreme Court ordered the State Po- ments unconstitutional, including the re- lice to pay 4,427 Lats (EUR 6,500) in me- quirement to apply for a permit, and sup- dical costs to an individual who was beaten ported instead a system of simple notifica- up by a police officer in Daugavpils in 1995. tion. In addition, the court ruled as uncon- The police officer had been sentenced to stitutional the 50 meter distance pre- three years’ imprisonment in 2003. scribed to official buildings; the require- There were several reports on police ment of the organizers of an event to pro- misconduct and corruption, and an at- duce a contract for having hired security tempt at a cover-up by senior police au- guards before applying for a permit; and thorities which came to light in July. the time limits for the municipality to pro- ◆ On 22 March, a Balvi criminal police hibit an event. The court provided time un- inspector, driving under the influence of al- til June 2007 to amend legislation. cohol, hit an 18-year-old youth who later died of his injuries. Several Balvi police of- Citizenship ficers, including police chief, attempted to More than 120,000 persons have be- cover up the drunk driving by having an- come Latvian citizens through naturaliza- other officer provide the required blood tion since the process became possible in test. Disciplinary proceedings were initiat- 1995, yet over 400,000 (about 18% of ed against six officers, out of whom one the population) remained “non-citizens” in was dismissed while the chief was demot- 2006. All of them were former Soviet citi- ed and transferred to another policing dis- zens who were permanent residents of trict. Three police officers received warn- Latvia. The number of naturalization appli- ings. In addition, the parliament in De- cations (10,581) almost halved in 2006 as cember dismissed the Balvi District Court compared to the pervious years. judge who knew that evidence had been By law, children born to non-citizen falsified but had failed to react adequately. parents after 21 August 1991 in Latvia ha- ve since 1998 the right to be registered as Freedom of assembly citizens, but the low number of registration Violations of the right to peaceful assem- remained a problem. Out of some 15,000 bly remained frequent throughout 2006. children eligible for citizenship only 6,000 While, in contrast to the previous years, hard- had been registered as citizens.

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The negative political atmosphere to- EU Directive ward naturalization especially in the pre- The EU Directive 2003/109/EC on election nationalist rhetoric contributed to long-term residents of third country na- lacking interest in naturalization. It took tionals, which entered into force on 23 Ja- concrete form in the nationalist party nuary, and which is to apply to Latvian Fatherland and Freedom proposal for a non-citizens as well as to migrants who are new citizenship law. The bill foresaw a sus- citizens of non-EU countries, was trans- pension of the naturalization process and posed into Latvian law. prescribed that persons who had arrived to After being adopted in a third reading Latvia during Soviet occupation could only on 25 May, President Vike-Freiberga re- become citizens through individual parlia- turned the law for review in parliament, mentary decision, and only if married to a stating the need to consider separating de- Latvian citizen, or could obtain citizenship mands put on non-citizens and citizens of for special merit or other specific circum- third countries in order to qualify for the stances. More stringent demands on lan- EU permanent resident status. The new guage proficiency and loyalty proof were law required proof of permanent resi- also planned. Although the bill was voted dence, language proficiency and legal in- down in parliament twice, the heated rhet- come from all applicants: however, non- oric on lack of loyalty of naturalized citizens citizens were by definition already perma- contributed to an atmosphere not con- nent residents of Latvia. Despite the presi- ducive to the promotion of naturalization.3 dent’s intervention, the law was re-adopt- There were also calls for a stricter ap- ed without changes on 22 June. proach in the naturalization procedures. New rules on naturalization were proposed Discrimination, racism and hate in July by the Justice Ministry, with more crimes stringent Latvian language requirements Discrimination and with a provision prescribing that an ap- By the end of 2006 the EU Racial plication be discarded if the applicant failed Equality Directive 2000/43/EC was still to pass the tests three times; a new appli- not fully transposed into national law. On cation could not be made for one year. The 21 September the parliament finally proposed law was accepted for review in adopted amendments to the labour law committees by parliament on 8 June. relating to the EU Employment Directive ◆ The case of Juris Petropavlovskis con- 2000/78/EC, explicitly including sexual tinued in 2006. Petropavlovskis, a minority orientation among the prohibited grounds education reform activist, had been denied for discrimination. However, the amend- citizenship in 2004 by the Cabinet of Mi- ments were passed only after the presi- nisters on grounds of disloyalty to the Lat- dent had returned the previously adopted vian state despite having fulfilled all natura- amendments for review. Latvia’s First Party lization requirements. The Administrative parliamentarians had successfully blocked District Court in 2005 rejected the case the adoption procedure with a rampantly saying it was “political,” not administrative. homophobic speech in parliament. Both an administrative regional court (on Case law on discrimination developed 13 February 2006) and the Senate in 2006, and the first case of discrimina- Administrative Department upheld the tion in employment on grounds of ethnic- 2004 decision not to grant citizenship. ity was decided in favor of the plaintiff, a Juris Petropavlovskis filed a case with the Roma woman, in a court in Jelgava, award- ECtHR in December. ing her 1,000 Lats (EUR 1,435) compen-

IHF REPORT 2007 HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE OSCE REGION 106 LATVIA sation to be paid by the enterprise for not the internet, but also in print media. There hiring her, referring to her ”accent” in the were also attempts to prosecute violent in- Latvian language. The defendant appealed cidents under this section so as to counter but lost the case after not showing up to criticism for having classified incidents as the hearing for a second time. The plaintiff mere cases of hooliganism. However, in a was represented by the NHRO. surprise development on 12 October, the On the other hand, the first reversals parliament added to section 48 of the of discrimination cases were also develop- criminal law racist motivation as an aggra- ing: the first employment discrimination vating factor. This amendment should case on grounds of sexual orientation, won pave the way for a clearer division be- by the plaintiff against a prospective em- tween incitement to hatred and violent ployer in 2005, was quashed in the sec- hate crimes. ond instance, and a further appeal on pro- Meanwhile, other amendments to the cedural grounds was not admitted by the criminal law section 78 were also under Supreme Court Civil Department. preparation by the Justice Ministry as a re- action to passive police response to pro- Hate crimes tect the participants of “Riga Pride” side Several incidents of racist violence in events. Rhetoric targeted against sexual Old Town of Riga continued to be reported minorities before and during the event was by the media, while police seemed to intense and to a large extent fuelled by struggle to develop the capacity to handle certain politicians. However, illustrating the such cases. lack of serious concern and coordination of Fourteen cases were initiated under initiatives, in November, different amend- section 78 of the criminal law (incitement ments to this criminal law section were to hatred based on race and national ori- passed in a first reading, leaving the ques- gin or ethnicity) by the security police, tion open of what type of hate crime leg- most of which concerned hate speech on islation will ultimately be adopted.

SOURCES FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: ➧ Latvian Centre for Human Rights, at www.humanrights.org.lv

Other organizations: ➧ Ombudsman’s Office, at www.vcb.lv

Publications: ➧ Latvian Centre for Human Rights, Human Rights in Latvia in 2006, at www.human- rights.org.lv ➧ Latvian Centre for Human Rights, Monitoring Report on Closed institutions in Latvia, 2006, at www.humanrights.org.lv ➧ Latvian Centre for Human Rights, Human Rights in Mental Health Care in Baltic Countries, 2006, at www.humanrights.org.lv ➧ Latvian Centre for Human Rights, Independent Detention Monitoring in Latvia, 2006, at www.humanrights.org.lv

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Endnotes 1 Of the total number of citizens in Latvia, 74% were Latvians and 19% Russians. 2 Application no. 58278/00. 3 It should be noted that although the motions were defeated and only 10 and respec- tively 12 votes were cast for them, in each of the votes 51 MPs abstained, rather than voting against the draconian proposal.

IHF REPORT 2007 HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE OSCE REGION