"Mr. Ekeus once again recommended to the government of the Latvian Republic to pace up and simplify naturalisation procedures for 'non-citizens'; grant local self-government franchise to all permanent residents of the country, whether they have its citizenship or not; and unconditionally ratify the framework convention on national minority protection. We join his recommendations," says the document.
As the ministry points out with regret, "spokesmen of influential international organisations made such recommendations on a number of previous occasions. The Latvian top is ignoring them, however."
"As for an educational reform that is underway in the Latvian Republic, it actually aims to put an end to full-fledged secondary education with Russian as tuition language. The reform is not to bring in its wake a quality deterioration of education, and undermine the status of ethnic minorities' native language and culture. Evidently, such recommendations are not enough."
The latest information from Latvia has brought the ministry to conclude that "the reform is, even now, de facto leading to a deterioration of the scope and quality of education in schools with tuition in Russian. This equally concerns mastering school disciplines by students.
"We count on representatives of concerned international organisations, the OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities among them, to carry on painstaking monitoring of developments round the rights of Latvia's non-titular population, and to practically promote a dialogue of Latvian authorities with spokesmen of the ethnic Russian community on topical issues of interethnic accord and progress of democracy in Latvia," says the Foreign Ministry.
