• Concord Centre once again proposes to set 7 January – Orthodox Christian Christmas as a bank holiday in Latvia
• Council of Non-governmental Organisations of Latvia sent an open letter to the Ombudsman
• Vesti Segodnya reports about the amendments to the Law on Asylum
• Belorussian cultural association celebrated its anniversary

The Saeima’s faction of the Concord Centre (CC) once again submitted to the Saeima a proposal on setting 7 January – Orthodox Christian Christmas as a bank holiday in Latvia. The CC reminded that a year ago the governing coalition following the initiative of the Reforms Party prepared a draft law stipulating that every resident has the right to take one day off once in a year. Thus people who do not celebrate Christmas on 25 December could do it on 7 January. However, up to this day, the Saeima has not viewed this draft law. Vesti Segodnya

Vesti Segodnya publishes an open letter by the Council of Non-governmental Organisations of Latvia to the Ombudsman Juris Jansons. The NGO criticizes the conclusions of the Ombudsman made following the results of the monitoring of bilingual education in national minority schools as he proposed to increase the control over the usage of the Latvian language in Russian minority schools and to transfer education in minority secondary schools into Latvian language only. The NGO considers that such conclusions are dangerous and disintegrate the society. The NGO also stresses that 75% of the students who were surveyed during the monitoring stated that they do not want to increase the proportion of Latvian language in educative process and this opinion cannot be ignored.

Recently, the Saeima has adopted the amendments to the Law on Asylum which also regulate the conditions of detention, rights and responsibilities of asylum seekers. The human rights experts criticize the amendments because it envisions that asylum seekers who break the rules of internal regulations are to be isolated in the place of detention together with criminals who are on the international wanted list. According to the lawyer of the Latvian Centre for Human Rights Dzena Andersone, it is wrong to give the same punishment to people who commit minor violations as to the people who commit major violations, such as actions aimed against health and life of other people, including personnel. Vesti Segodnya

Vesti Segodnya reports about a 20th anniversary of the national cultural association of Belorussians in Latvia “Pramen” and 25th anniversary of Belorussian folk ensemble “Nadzeja”.

• Vesti Segodnya prints a critical article about the Ombudsman’s monitoring of bilingual education

Vesti Segodnya prints a critical article about the Ombudsman’s monitoring of bilingual education in ethnic minority schools and the way the Ombudsman interpreted the results. As reported the Ombudsman presented results of the monitoring conducted in 49 ethnic minority schools and concluded that as 50% of students have good Latvian language skills there should be the transition to instruction in Latvian language only. Moreover, the Ombudsman reported to the State Language Centre about seven teachers who have insufficient Latvian language proficiency. Directors of schools where the monitoring was conducted in an interview with the newspaper say that the Ombudsman’s Office did not notify the schools when the monitoring will take place and, therefore, many teachers were shocked when representatives of the Ombudsman suddenly entered the class. The directors believe that the Ombudsman carries out political order by some party in order to switch the attention of ethnic Latvian voters from other existing problems. Head of the education department of the Ministry of Education Evija Papule also criticizes the Ombudsman’s conclusion about the monitoring saying that it looks strange that the Ombudsman politicizes education issues in the threshold of the up-coming parliamentary elections. According to Mrs Papule, the existing bilingual education system is successful as the state language proficiency of students has sufficiently improved and students of secondary schools freely speak Latvian. Representative of the Latvian Human Rights Committee Vladimirs Buzajevs stated that even if 100% of students would evaluate their Latvian language proficiency as good it does not mean that national minority education should switch into Latvian and highlighted that the reason why these children study in their native tongue is not because of insufficient Latvian language proficiency, but because they want to preserve their identity. He also draws attention to the fact that 52% the interviewed pupils stated they want to study in their native language, not bilingually. The newspaper also notes that the Ombudsman is supposed to defend human rights, including the rights of ethnic minorities, before the state; however, now he acts like the state language inspection.

• Ombudsman presented results of a monitoring of bilingual education in ethnic minorities schools
• Neatkariga: Ombudsman supports Roma villages, but eliminates Roma classes
• The international editor of the Economist Edward Lucas: ethnic Russian should have wider representation at high posts

 Yesterday, in the framework of the annual conference, the Ombudsman Juris Jansons presented the findings of the monitoring of bilingual education in minority schools in Riga and Latvian regions. The aim of the monitoring was to evaluate how bilingual education is being implemented and how it promotes the integration of students in the Latvian society. The monitoring was conducted in 49 schools. 49 school principals were interviewed, 215 lessons were observed, and 3,272 students were surveyed. According to the monitoring results, 50% of the students evaluate their Latvian language proficiency as good, and 77% of the students easily perceive lessons in the Latvian language. 35% admitted that most likely they would not want to study any subjects in the Latvian language, while 40% would like to study only a few subjects in Latvian. 25% of the students would be ready to do all the subjects in Latvian. During the monitoring, the Ombudsman identified that seven teachers have insufficient Latvian language proficiency and reported about them to the State Language Centre. The Ombudsman has proposed more the state monitoring of state language use and education quality in minority schools. The Ombudsman also concluded that as 50% of students have good Latvian language skills there should be the transition to instruction in Latvian language only. The exception could be made in the case of children who have recently immigrated to Latvia and are not proficient in Latvian. In an interview with Latvijas Avize, the Ombudsman explained that these proposals are not definitive, and they were made to provoke a discussion. Other conference speakers also contributed to the discussion. The MEP from Latvia, Karlis Sadurskis stated that education in all Latvian state funded schools should be in Latvian language only in order to promote integration and seek that Latvia becomes more “ethnic Latvian”. MP Boriss Cilevics did not support the proposal arguing that it is not permissible not to take into account the opinion of those students and their parents who do not want to study in Latvian language only. Advisor to the Minister of Education Liesma Ose did not support the proposal of the Ombudsman and Mr Sadurskis stressing the benefits of bilingual education system. Latvijas Avize

Neatkariga prints an article about the idea of the Head of the Latvian Roma Association Normunds Rudevics on building Roma villages. As reported, Mr Rudevics proposes to build at least four Roma villages in Latvian regions which would have several factories, houses and other infrastructure for Roma people. According to Mr Rudevics, building one village would cost around 40 millions euros and it could be covered by the European Commission’s grants, but the land for such villages could be provided by local governments. Experts interviewed by Neatkariga are sceptical about such initiative as the closed villages do not correspond to the meaning of integration. Representative of the Ministry of Culture Deniss Kretalovs believes that closed Roma villages would promote their segregation and besides that, the concept of Roma villages is described only on 10 pages without proper calculations. Newspaper also notes that the Ombudsman’s Office supports the idea of Roma villages despite the fact that recently the Ombudsman’s Office got actively involved in elimination of Roma classes in Latvian schools as those promote Roma segregation. According to the head of the equality department of the Ombudsman’s Office Sarlote Berzina, preservation of camping and tabor lifestyle is very important for Roma.

 The international editor of the U.K. based global newsweekly The Economist Edward Lucas in an interview with Latvijas Avize states that the Concord Centre should be represented in the government because it has support of about 30% of population. Mr Lucas believes that, with the view on strategic long-term priorities, it is important for Latvia that Russian speaking residents feel integrated into the state’s political system because it would also let them feel responsibility. By holding the Concord Centre constantly in the opposition it creates a risk for local Russian to feel as being in opposition towards the state. Mr Lucas also believes that ethnic Russians should have wider representation at high posts.

• Latvian Human Rights Committee organised conference devoted to the 65th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Vesti Segodnya reports that some non-citizens experience hurdles in accessing help envisioned for the relatives of the victims of shopping centre collapse

On 8 December 2013, Latvian Human Rights Committee organised international conference devoted to the 65th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Experts, politicians, human rights defenders, representatives of civil society participating in the conference discussed the current human rights situation in Europe and the Baltic States, as well as compliance with the norms of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Vesti Segodnya

Vesti Segodnya writes about a family of non-citizens, who experience problems in receiving assistance envisioned for the relatives of the victims of shopping centre collapse in Riga on 21 November 2013. According to the newspaper, the interviewed family still could not receive the LVL 40 (EUR 57) compensation from the social services, and complained that the charity portal which collects private donations communicate only in Latvian and provided support only after involvement of journalists.

• Head of the Latvian Roma Association Normunds Rudevics proposes to build Roma villages in Latvia
• MP Iveta Grigule: Latvia might be obliged to accept 10,000 refugees every year
• Latvijas Avize prints an interview with the head of the Saeima’s faction of the Concord Centre Valerijs Agesins

Diena reports about an initiative of the head of the Latvian Roma Association, commissioner of the International Roma Union Normunds Rudevics of building Roma villages in Latvia. According to Mr Rudevics, the aim of such initiative is to solve the problems of Latvian Roma people through stimulating economic growth in regions. Mr Rudevics proposes to build at least four Roma villages and each of those would have several factories, about 50 houses for Roma families, culture house, places for leisure, administrative building, kindergarten, sports hall, and a store. Building one village would cost around 40 millions euros. For such purpose Mr Rudevics wants to attract funding of the European Commission’s Europe’s growth strategy “Europe2020.”

Vesti Segodnya reports that the European Commission (EC) proposed to pay the EU member countries EUR 6,000 for every refugee accepted. Member of the Saeima’s Committee on European Affairs, MP Iveta Grigule believes that such proposal is just a beginning. According to Mrs Grigule, presently, the EC works on elaboration of a number of new directives and regulations stipulating that the EU member states should obligatory within set quotas accept refugees from the Middle East and North African region. Mrs Grigule supposes that Latvia might be obliged to accept 10,000 refugees every year.

Latvijas Avize prints an interview with the head of the Saeima’s faction of the Concord Centre Valerijs Agesins. Mr Agesins criticizes the draft Preamble to the Constitution of Latvia saying that it splits the society and creates tension. Mr Agesins does not agree that the referendum on granting Russian language status of a state language in Latvia in February 2012 showed that there is a need to strengthen Latvian language because people who voted for Russian language as a state language most likely had different motivation to do so. According to Mr Agesins, it would be much more useful to conduct a research about the reasons which motivated part of Latvian citizens to vote for Russian language at the referendum and to hold the National Forum inviting simple people with different opinions to come together and decide what to do next and how to solve the problems.