The paper “Combating Hate Crimes in Latvia: Legislation and Police Practice” maps and analyses the situation concerning hate crimes in Latvia, including legislation and police practises, in order to identify the gaps and to improve legislative and law enforcement responses to hate crimes.
On 26 May 2005 the Saeima passed the law On the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, thus ending 10-year-long period of discussion of the ratification of the Convention, signed by the Latvian government on 11 May 1995. On 3 October 2006 the Cabinet of Ministers approved the first State Report of the Republic of Latvia on the implementation of the Framework Convention in Latvia. Despite announced intentions declared by state institutions, no broad public discussions were held and no national minority organisations were involved in the report preparation process.
The brochure explains what are hate crimes.
On 21 November the Latvian Centre for Human Rights organised an international conference “Policing, Combating and Preventing Hate Crimes”.
In order to promote discussions about the impact of the Convention on minority rights in Latvia, the Latvian Centre for Human Rights (LCHR)has prepared a “shadow” report, which aims at providing information on the implementation of specific articles of the Convention in Latvia.The shadow report does not provide general analysis of legislation and other normative acts, but focuses on practical aspects of the implementation of the rights enshrined in the Convention, thus providing complementary information to other reports, including the state report.
