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Challenging Ethnic Democracy: Implementation of the Recommendations of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minori- Ties to Latvia, 1993-2001

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Challenging Ethnic Democracy: Implementation of the Recommendations of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minori- Ties to Latvia, 1993-2001 Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg Wolfgang Zellner/Randolf Oberschmidt/Claus Neukirch/Katri Kemppainen (Eds.) Comparative Case Studies on the Effectiveness of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Jekaterina Dorodnova Challenging Ethnic Democracy: Implementation of the Recommendations of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minori- ties to Latvia, 1993-2001 Working Paper 10 Wolfgang Zellner/Randolf Oberschmidt/Claus Neukirch/Katri Tuulia Kemppainen (Eds.) Comparative Case Studies on the Effectiveness of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Jekaterina Dorodnova Challenging Ethnic Democracy: Implementation of the Recommendations of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities to Latvia, 1993-2001 CORE Working Paper 9 Hamburg 2003 2 Contents List of Abbreviations 7 Editor´s Preface 8 Preface and Acknowledgements 9 Chapter 1. Historical and Political Background of the HCNM’s Involvement 13 1.1 Independence and Annexation 13 1.2 The Post-Stalin Era 15 1.3 Language and Education in Soviet Latvia 16 1.4 The Independence Movement 17 1.5 The Post-Independence Political Context in Latvia 19 1.6 The Identity of Russian-speakers in Latvia 22 1.7 Latvian-Russian Interstate Relations 23 Chapter 2. The Adoption of the Latvian Citizenship Law, 1993-1994 25 2.1 Background to the Latvian Citizenship Law 25 2.1.1 The Inter-war Period 25 2.1.2 The Modern Citizenship Debate, 1980s – 1990s 26 2.1.3 The Draft Citizenship Law, 1989 26 2.1.4 The Draft Citizenship Law, 1991 27 2.1.5 The Supreme Council Resolution of October 15, 1991 27 2.1.6 Reactions to the Resolution of October 15, 1991 28 2.2. The Adoption Process of the Citizenship Law and the HCNM’s Involvement 29 2.2.1 The HCNM’s Initial Involvement in Latvia, 1993 29 2.2.2 The Media’s Treatment of the HCNM’s Initial Involvement in Latvia 31 2.2.3 The High Commissioner’s Position regarding the Legal Continuity Approach, 1991-1993 31 2.2.4 Debating the Citizenship Law in the Fifth Saeima: A General Overview, 1993- 1994 32 2.2.5 The HCNM’s and the CoE’s Joint Involvement in the Drafting of the Citizenship Law 33 2.2.6 The Passing of the Draft Citizenship Law on June 21, 1994 34 2.2.7 President Ulmanis’s Veto 34 2.2.8 The Repeated Consideration of the Citizenship Law 35 2.2.9 Assessment 35 2.3 Specific Recommendations of the High Commissioner Regarding the Quota Sys- tem for Naturalisation and the Saeima’s Response, 1993-1994 36 2.3.1 The "Radical" and the "Liberal" Approaches to Quotas 36 2.3.2 Naturalisation Quotas in the draft Citizenship Law 37 2.3.3 The HCNM’s Recommendations on the Draft Law 37 2.3.4 Reactions to the High Commissioner’s Recommendations 38 2.3.5 The Reconsideration of the Citizenship Law and Article 14 39 3 2.3.6 Reactions to the Adoption of the Citizenship Law 41 Chapter 3. Abolishing the "Windows" System 43 3.1 The Problem of Naturalisation, 1995-1997 43 3.1.1 Stagnation of the Naturalisation Process and the Coalition Agreement 43 3.1.2 Reasons for the Slow Naturalisation Pace 44 3.1.3 The HCNM’s Recommendation to Abolish the "Windows" System in the 1996- 1997 Latvian Political Context 45 3.2 Revived Debate on the "Windows" System, 1997-1998 47 3.2.1 A Season for Extremism 47 3.2.2 The Crisis of March-April 1998 48 3.2.3 International Response to the Conflict 49 3.2.4 Reactions to the HCNM’s Recommendation on Abolishing the "Windows" 50 3.3 The Process of Amending the Citizenship Law, 1998 51 3.3.1 The Request for a National Referendum 52 3.3.2 Support for the HCNM’s Recommendations on the Citizenship Law 52 3.3.3 The Success of the Referendum Initiative 53 3.3.4 The Result of the National Referendum 54 3.3.5 Assessment of the Influence of the High Commissioner on the Political Process 54 Chapter 4. The Issue of Stateless Children Born in Latvia 57 4.1 Background 57 4.1.1 Compliance with Article 24, Paragraph 3, of the International Covenant On Civil And Political Rights, 1993-1994 57 4.1.2 Compliance with Article 7, Paragraph 1, of The Convention On The Reduction of Statelessness 59 4.2 Recommendations Concerning the Granting of Citizenship to Children Born in Latvia to Stateless Persons or Non-Citizens, 1997-1998 60 4.2.1 The 1998 Negotiations over the Provision on Stateless Children 62 4.2.2 Adoption of the Provision on Stateless Children 65 4.3 Summary and Conclusions 66 Chapter 5. Naturalisation Procedures 71 5.1. The Term of Residence Required for Naturalisation 71 5.2 Restrictions from Naturalisation by a Court Degree 72 5.3 The Budget of the Naturalisation Board 74 5.4 The State Fee for Naturalisation 75 5.5 The Requirement to Have a Legal Source of Income 77 5.6 The Waiting Period for Naturalisation and the Appeals Procedure 78 5.7 Granting Citizenship for Outstanding Accomplishments 80 5.8 Language Requirements for Naturalisation 81 5.8.1 Language Knowledge and Exemptions from the Language Test, 1993-1994 81 5.8.2 The 1995 Amendments 83 4 5.8.3 The Issue of Exempting the Elderly and the Disabled from the Language Test Back on the Agenda, 1996-1998 83 5.8.4 Lowering the General Language Requirements, 1996-1998 85 5.8.5 Summary and Assessment 87 5.9 The Test of Latvian History and Constitution 88 5.9.1 Recommendations on the Test of the Latvian History and Constitution 90 5.9.2 Assessment 92 5.10 Public Information on Naturalisation 93 Chapter 6 . The Law on the State Language 96 6.1 Background 96 6.2 Language Examinations 97 6.3 Language and Schools 98 6.4 The State Language Inspectorate 99 6.5 The Adoption Process of the New State Language Law, 1994-1999 100 6.5.1 The Second Reading of the Draft Law, March 1998 100 6.5.2 The High Commissioner’s Involvement, March-April 1998 101 6.5.3 The Second Reading of the Draft Law, April 1998 and the HCNM, August– September 1998 102 6.5.4 The Third Reading of the Draft Law, September-October 1998 102 6.5.5 The Draft Law in the Seventh Saeima and the HCNM 103 6.5.6 The Second Reading of the Draft Law in the Seventh Saeima, March 1999 103 6.5.7 The High Commissioner’s Involvement, March-July 1999 104 6.5.8 The Third Reading of the State Language Law, July 8, 1999 106 6.6 Reactions to the Adoption of the Law 106 6.6.1 The High Commissioner’s Reaction and the President’s Veto 107 6.6.2 The State Language Law in the Context of EU Accession 107 6.7 The Cabinet of Ministers’ Language Regulations and International Involvement 108 6.8 Specific Recommendations Made by the High Commissioner on the State Lan- guage Law 110 6.8.1 The General Scope of Language Regulation in the Private Sphere and the "Legiti- mate Public Interest" Clause 111 6.8.2 Language Proficiency Degrees 113 6.8.3 The Language of Addressing Public and Private Authorities 115 6.8.4 The Use of Language in Personal Names 116 6.9 Use of Language in Education 118 6.10 Other Recommendations Made by the HCNM to the Draft Law on the State Lan- guage 120 6.10.1 Record-Keeping (Article 8) 121 6.10.2 Stamps, Seals and Letterheads (Article 20) 121 6.10.3 Names of Institutions, Enterprises and Organisations (Article 18) 121 6.10.4 Place Names (Article 18) 122 6.10.5 Formal Meetings (Article 7) 122 6.10.6 Broadcasting and Films (Article 17) 122 6.10.7 Public Information (Article 21) 122 6.10.8 Public Events (Article 11) 123 6.11 Language Training 125 6.12 Assessment 127 5 Chapter 7. Integration, the Minority Ombudsman and the Ethnicity Entry 129 7.1 The Integration Programme 129 7.2 Subsequent Integration-related Developments 130 7.3 The Idea of a National Commissioner on Ethnic and Language Questions 131 7.4 The Latvian National Human Rights Office 131 7.5 The Ethnicity Entry in Passports 133 Chapter 8. Conclusion - Challenging Ethnic Democracy: An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the HCNM in Latvia, 1993-2001 135 8.1 Operational, Normative and Substantive Effectiveness 136 8.1.1 Operational Effectiveness of the High Commissioner - the HCNM’s Recommendations and Latvia’s Foreign Policy Priorities - Distribution of Involvement - Fostering Dialogue 136 8.1.2 Normative Effectiveness of the High Commissioner 141 8.1.3 Substantive Effectiveness of the High Commissioner 146 8.2 Overall Assessment 150 List of References 153 Bibliography 160 6 List of Abbreviations International CBSS Council of Baltic Sea States CoE Council of Europe CSCE Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) CSO Committee of Senior Officials (OSCE) EBRD European Bank for Reconstruction and Development ECMI European Centre for Minority Issues ECHR European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms EU European Union FCPNM Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities FIER Foundation on Inter-Ethnic Relations HCNM High Commissioner on National Minorities (OSCE) ICCPR International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights IFSH Institut für Friedensforschung und Sicherheitspolitik Hamburg NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization NGO Non-governmental Organization ODIHR Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE) OSCE Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe PHARE Poland and Hungary Action for the Reconstruction of the Economy (EU) RFE/RL Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty SSR Soviet Socialist Republic UN United Nations UNDP United Nations Development Programme US United States USA United States of America USD United States Dollar USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics WWII World War Two Republic of Latvia FHRUL For Human Rights in the United Latvia LNHRO Latvian National Human Rights Office LVL Latvijas lats [Latvian Lat] MFA Ministry of Foreign Affairs MK Ministru Kabinets (Cabinet of Ministers) MNIL Movement for the National Independence of Latvia MP Member of Parliament NPLLT National Programme for Latvian Language Training RL Republic of Latvia SIF Society Integration Foundation 7 Editor´s Preface With the present series "Comparative Case Studies on the Effectiveness of the OSCE High Com- missioner on National Minorities," we are publishing the results of five country studies on Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine, Macedonia and Romania of the project "On the Effectiveness of the OSCE Minor- ity Regime.
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