FUEN-president criticises closure of the “Minority Ministry” in Latvia

At the invitation of the Latvian “Special Assignments Ministry for Social Integration” the president of the Federal Union of European Nationalities, Hans Heinrich Hansen, participated in a minority conference in Riga on 5 December 2008. Hansen acknowledged the progress the Latvian government has made in minority policy. But at the same time he pointed out that it is necessary to find solutions in dialogue together with the minorities. “We all here in the room know about the difficult situation, also in your country. There are problems with integration, with citizenship, cultural development and political participation that need to be solved and improved”, according to Hansen.
FUEN cannot understand the decision in Riga to dismantle the “Special Assignments Ministry for Social Integration” and also the secretariat that deals with minority issues that is part of it in the beginning of next year. “We will closely monitor if this decision will have negative consequences on minority policy in Latvia. Until now, we have worked well together with the secretariat for minority issues”, Hansen said.

According to official statistics 40 percent of the population of Latvia belongs to a minority. With 650 000 people the Russian-speaking part of the population makes up the largest group. Many of them are stateless. They do not have the Latvian or another state citizenship and therefore they do not have the rights that Latvian citizens have. This group consists of the persons or offspring, who migrated to Latvia in the years of Soviet-occupation.

During the conference that mainly dealt with article 9 of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (Media), media scholar Mareike Watolla presented for FUEN the research she had done on the media situation amongst the FUEN member organisations. She emphasised how important a diverse media landscape is for the survival of minorities, for their identity and language.

In May 2008 FUEN adopted the Fundamental Right to Media at its annual congress in Pécs, Hungary. In this compendium about the specific situation of media in the minorities the fundamental demands and needs are formulated.

Apart from the participation in the conference additional talks with minority associations were part of the programme and a visit to the Latvian Radio 4, a station that only broadcasts minority programmes.

In the talks FUEN heard that there are only television programmes for the Russian minority. Programmes in other minority languages had failed. Those responsible for the programmes of Radio 4 were concerned about that there is almost no dialogue between the government and the Latvian minorities.

The Latvian state demands loyalty from its minorities, but unfortunately the state shows little loyalty towards its minorities, was what the discussion partners told the FUEN representatives.

Source: http://www.fuen.org/press/20081204_riga_EN.html