The more so, Latvia can face the situation when Russia has to defend the so-called compatriots. Thus, the Crimea’s scenario can repeat. Do Latvian authorities want it? [...]
The painful issue of using the Russian language in Latvia appears on the agenda once again. Ethnic Russians “knock at the doors” of international organizations trying to defend their rights to speak and get an education in their native language. Their hope for understanding in Latvia is melting every day.
It has become known that the Russian Community in Latvia sent a letter to the Council of Europe about the violation of human rights. The message addressed to Secretary-General Thorbjorn Jagland also calls for a request from the Venice Commission to amend the two Latvian language laws which were adopted by the Saeima in spring.
The letter informs the Secretary-General of Europe that “the laws on education that directly affect the rights of the national minorities of Latvia have been adopted without consulting the minorities and without considering their opinions. By the language reform, the authorities intend to reduce to 20% the proportions of teaching in the languages of national minorities.
The letter claims that a third of the Latvian population is Russian native speakers and Russian is studied in the country for more than one century.”
Latvian students show one more example of fighting for their rights. The Latvian Constitutional Court will consider a lawsuit on the compliance of new language law and the basic state law. It relates to a ban on teaching in Russian at private universities. The case should be processed by April 12, 2019.
The authors of the lawsuit, David, Dana, and Tengiz Djibouti, draw attention to the fact that the Latvian Constitution promises everyone the right to education. It also says that national minorities have the right to their own language, ethnic, and cultural identity.
Teaching at private universities is conducted in Russian. In the students’ opinion, the elimination of Russian-language education contradicts their constitutional rights to preserve their native language.
According to the students, the changes were adopted “hastily without the necessary discussion.”
It was reported earlier that next year Russian-language programs in private universities would be closed. However, those who now studies will be allowed to get diplomas. About a third of students in private universities study in Russian.
Such changes will lead to the fact that the number of foreign students in Latvia will immediately decrease, and, consequently, budget revenues will also fall. this decision is ill-conceived and made to achieve political goals on the eve of the elections.
According to experts, the issue of neglecting the basic human rights in Latvia is a purely political one. If the native language was not Russian, nobody would threaten it. Thus if imagine that one-third of the Latvian population speaks English or German, Latvian authorities would not even think about changing the educational system.
The matter is the POLITICS nowadays is above all: above common sense, above historical memory, above real needs of the population.
The adopted laws are politically motivated. Reducing the rights of the bigger part of its own population Latvia spoils its own image in the international arena. Violation of constitutionally guaranteed human rights reduces trust in Latvia as to the democratic state.
The more so, Latvia can face the situation when Russia has to defend the so-called compatriots. Thus, Crimea’s scenario can repeat. Do Latvian authorities want it?
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On March 11, 2006, President Slobodan Milosevic died in a NATO prison. No one has been held accountable for his death. In the 12 years since the end of his lonely struggle to defend himself and his country against the false charges invented by the NATO powers, the only country to demand a public inquiry into the circumstances of his death came from Russia when Foreign Minister, Serge Lavrov, stated that Russia did not accept the Hague tribunal’s denial of responsibility and demanded that an impartial and international investigation be conducted. Instead, The NATO tribunal made its own investigation, known ...
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Friday, a Russian SU-27 did a barrel roll over a U.S. RC-135 over the Baltic, the second time in two weeks.Also in April, the U.S. destroyer Donald Cook, off Russia’s Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, was twice buzzed by Russian planes.Vladimir Putin’s message: Keep your spy planes and ships a respectable distance away from us. Apparently, we have not received it.Friday, Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work announced that 4,000 NATO troops, including two U.S. battalions, will be moved into Poland and the Baltic States, right on Russia’s border.“The Russians have been doing a lot of snap exercises right up against ...
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The full extent of the damage to international peace and security caused by the US-led Syrian strikes will take some time to become clear. But its impact on the very concept of legality in international affairs is already evident.Simply put, the most powerful county in the world and its chief satellites, the UK and France, have thrown the rule of law into the trash can. The only "law" now is the law of the jungle. There is no going back.Ironically, the attack itself was claimed by its perpetrators as enforcement of legality, not of its obliteration. For example, NATO Secretary-General ...
Origins of images: Facebook, Twitter, Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Flickr, Google, Imageinjection, Public Domain & Pinterest.Read our Disclaimer/Legal Statement!Donate to Support UsWe would like to ask you to consider a small donation to help our team keep working. We accept no advertising and rely only on you, our readers, to keep us digging the truth on history, global politics and international relations.[wpedon id="4696" align="left"]Save
“We could become the first country to go fascist through free elections.” — William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third ReichGenerally, we avoid using the word “fascism” in polite company, and until recently, a person pointing out parallels between Nazi Germany and the current United States would invite elevated eyelids along with the outworn charge of sounding like a “conspiracy theorist“. The current electoral cycle seems to be changing that, so I will trust that now is the right time to convey some ideas I’ve been marinating regarding fascism in my US Homeland. The ruling plutocrats are clearly ferrying the ...
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