Human rights experts at the UN have condemned Latvia intention to make Latvian the sole language used in schools. It is believed that doing so might constitute discrimination against minority groups in a country. A quarter of the population currently speaks Russian.
The Baltic state enacted a bill with the objective of making Latvian the only language of teaching by 2025.
However, three United Nations Special Rapporteurs condemned the proposals as “contrary to international human rights. It is considered discrimination on the basis of language and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.”
As required by international law and regional agreements, the government of Latvia must “protect and preserve the linguistic rights of the country’s minority communities without discrimination.”
Latvian government maintained that the move was part of an ongoing “de-Russification” program and did not violate international agreements.
Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkvis stated that by steadily increasing the use of Latvian as the medium of instruction in schools, Latvia has “behaved in good faith.”
Students engaging in interest-based education programs funded by state and municipal governments should have the right to study minority language.
Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins has attempted to ban the use of the Russian language in public
Additionally, the dictatorship has outlawed Russian television and demolished landmarks from the Soviet era. Numerous Latvians of Latvian ancestry supported the changes.
However, many of the 1,9 million Russian-speakers in Latvia felt they no longer belonged in the country.
Ethnic Latvians consider the incorporation of Latvia into the Soviet Union in 1940 as an unlawful annexation. The Soviet victory in 1945 as a continuation of the harsh occupation, and contemporary Russia as a threat.
Sociologist Arnis Kaktins told Reuters in September 2014 that, prior to the Ukraine crisis, Russian speakers in Latvia tend to believe that the country joined the Soviet Union freely and that Russia is a friendly nation.
Since the battle, ties between Russia and the three Baltic republics have significantly worsened.
Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, which were all historically part of the Soviet Union, are now among the NATO allies aggressively lobbying for the deployment of extra weapons to Ukraine to help it in its fight against Russian troops.
The Russian Foreign Ministry ordered the Latvian ambassador to leave the country within two weeks after Riga opted to expel Moscow’s ambassador.
Estonia and Lithuania also expelled their respective Russian diplomats from their missions.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the only area in which it noticed “solidarity” was in the Baltic nations’ “total Russophobia.
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