UN delivers human rights verdict on Baltics

[Harold Schiffman]

UN delivers human rights verdict on Baltics

Mar 23, 2008
By Mike Collier

SPECIAL DELIVERY: Diene's reports were submitted at the UN Human
Rights CouncilNEW YORK – The United Nations Human Rights Council
(UNHCR) has delivered a shopping list of recommendations to the Baltic
states to address what it believes are serious problems of
discrimination and racism. On 19 March during the 7th Session of the
UN Human Rights Council, the snappily-titled UN Special Rapporteur on
contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and
related intolerance, Doudou Diène, submitted reports on all three
countries.

The Senegalese bureaucrat visited the Baltic states from 16 to 28
September 2007, and has managed to produce well over 60 pages of
problems, analysis and recommendations as a result, though large
chunks of text are reproduced verbatim in the 'individual' reports
about each country. A line about each nation being "at a turning point
in its history" seems to be a particular favourite and some of the
recommendations are state-the-obvious iterations that discrimination
should not be encouraged but inclusiveness should.

However, Diene does also identify things individual to each country,
particularly concerned with language, citizenship issues among ethnic
Russians and serious job and educational discrimination against Roma
people. Some of his recommendations will be controversial –
particularly in Latvia, where he hints at the use of Russian in an
official capacity in parts of the country with a Russian majority. The
Baltic Times has read all three reports and summarises the main points
below:

ESTONIA
Though praising Estonia's legal framework, the report states: "The
Special Rapporteur also found a number of areas of concern, primarily
concerning three distinct communities in Estonia: the Russian-speaking
minority, the Roma community and non-European migrants. The main
concerns of the Russian-speaking community are directly related to
statelessness, which predominantly affects this group, and the
country's language policy, which is seen as an attempt to suppress the
usage of Russian. Despite its small size, the Roma community in
Estonia, as elsewhere in Europe, suffers mostly from structural
discrimination, precarious education and marginalization. Lastly,
non-European minorities have experienced a surge in racist violence,
particularly by extremist groups and intolerance by some individuals
concerning their ethnic, religious and cultural diversity. Although
each of these communities faces different types of problems, a truly
long-term solution can only be achieved by focusing on the promotion
of multiculturalism and respect of diversity."

Russian groups Diene spoke with told him that "statelessness remains a
central problem that mostly affects the Russian-speaking community.
They highlighted that although the overall citizenship application
procedures have been facilitated, they still pose problems to a number
of vulnerable groups. The cost of language courses in Estonian was
seen as a major obstacle for the economically marginalized segments of
the population. The reimbursement of the expenses with language
courses was not seen as helpful, since it only applies after the exam
and covers exclusively candidates that are successful in the language
examinations. The Special Rapporteur was informed that many candidates
need to take the exam more than once, which entails an even higher
cost. The situation of Russian-speaking elders was also considered as
vulnerable, since the majority of people within this group have
difficulties in terms of language instruction."

Diene said he was "particularly impressed" by a roundtable meeting he
had with community groups in the Russian-majority Ida Virumaa region.

"The members of the Roundtable demonstrate a profound understanding of
intercommunity relations, making a deliberate – and appropriate –
choice for a process of multicultural integration… The fact that this
experience takes place in a region largely inhabited by the
Russian-speaking community shows the potential of inter-community
relations as a means to foster tolerance and understanding." the
report says.

His recommendations for Estonia include a demand that "The Government
should establish a broad process of consultation with a view to
reducing the gap in historical perceptions between the Estonian and
Russian-speaking communities," and a belief that "The language policy
in Estonia should be subject to an open and inclusive debate, in close
consultation with ethnic minorities, aimed at finding strategies that
better reflect the multilingual character of Estonian society."

LATVIA
Latvia gets an even more serious examination from Diene, who expresses
concern that "A grave indicator of the increase in racism and
discrimination mentioned by civil society interlocutors was the
mounting number of racially motivated crimes committed in the past
years. This included a surge in incitement to racial, ethnic and
religious hatred, often fuelled by politicians from extremist
parties."

Latvian legislation is described as "severely deficient in terms of
responding to hate speech and racially motivated crimes," and an
amendment approved by the Saeima in 2006 to include racism as an
aggravating factor in criminal acts is considered "incomplete and
overly general."

The report continues to say that: "Members of the Russian-speaking
communities expressed the view that the most important form of
discrimination in Latvia originates not in society, but rather in
State institutions, in the form of the existing citizenship policy.
The large number of stateless persons - 392,000 at present - was
pointed out as evidence of discrimination on the basis of denial of
citizenship rights."

"Apart from the problem of citizenship, the Russian-speaking
communities highlighted concerns over language policy in Latvia, in
terms of language requirements for naturalization, regulations on the
use of non-official languages in public and private life and the role
of language in education. One of the main reasons that was raised as
an explanation for the decline in the rate of naturalization was the
language requirement in the naturalization exam, which is seen as
strict by representatives of the Russian-speaking communities. In
particular, although the Government has sponsored some language
instruction courses for non-citizens, free-of-charge Latvian language
classes in preparation for the naturalization exam are seen as a
fundamental step to positively encourage more applications for
citizenship, particularly of marginalized members of the
Russian-speaking communities."

Diene wades even further into the controversial question of the use of
the Russian language and ends up backing changes in Latvian law that
would see Russian used in an official capacity and grant passports to
ethnic Russians automatically.

"Insofar as citizenship regulations are concerned, the Government
should revisit the existing requirements for naturalization with the
objective of facilitating the granting of citizenship to non-citizens
and implementing the commitments established by the 1961 Convention on
the Reduction of Statelessness. In particular, the Government should
consider appropriate measures to tackle the problem of the low level
of registration as citizens of children born in Latvia after 21 August
1991 to non-citizen parents. These measures could include granting
automatic citizenship at birth, without a requirement of registration
by the parents, to those children born to non-citizen parents who do
not acquire any other nationality. The Government should also relax
naturalization requirements, in particular language proficiency exams,
for elderly persons. Additionally, the granting of voting rights in
local elections for non-citizens who are long-term residents of Latvia
should be considered by the Government and the subject of broad
discussion within Latvian society," Diene recommends.

However, he also notes that "Latvian society has a history of
tolerance, muticulturalism and openness to distinct cultures," that
should be a major element in tackling modern-day discrimination.

LITHUANIA
Though he includes many common concerns in his coverage of Lithuania,
the UN man's main focus shifts to Roma people living in the country.

During his visit, he reports that "he noted with concern the profound
discrimination faced by the Roma community, particularly in the fields
of employment, education and housing." Non-European minorities have
also faced growing problems in terms of racist violence as well as
hate speech.

"The Special Rapporteur visited the largest Roma settlement in
Lithuania (Kirtimai), in the outskirts of Vilnius, to receive
first-hand information concerning the situation of the Roma community.
During his visit to the Roma settlement, the Special Rapporteur noted
the precarity of living conditions, especially housing, to which the
community is exposed. In particular, he noted the lack of electricity
and heating as well as drinking water and sanitation in many houses,
reportedly due to an inability of some families to pay the fees for
public utilities. These families often have to rely on firewood as a
source of heating, which is subsidized by the municipal authorities.
Some of the dwellings are also overcrowded, with several families
living together."

But it wasn't all gloom and doom, as "The Special Rapporteur noted
with interest that one of the most popular singers in Lithuania today
is a Roma. Although Roma communities in Europe have historically found
in music one of the few avenues for expression and broad participation
in society, which has not had a meaningful impact on the reversal of
their marginalization and exclusion, the Special Rapporteur expressed
his conviction that the success of a Roma musician as a national
symbol in mainstream popular music in Lithuania could be an
opportunity for authorities, society at large and the Roma community
to deepen this expression of acceptance of diversity and engage in a
profound discussion aimed at fostering new opportunities for
educational, cultural and professional inclusion of Roma within
Lithuanian society."

In non-UN speak, the fact that people like gypsy music suggests that
they can also like gypsies.

However, Diene believes that "The Roma community in Lithuania, as in
many European countries, is a particularly vulnerable group, and
subject to profound discrimination - not sanctioned by laws, but
deeply rooted in the minds of many citizens."

His Lithuanian recommendations include strengthening the Criminal Code
to include making "committing an offence with a racist motivation or
aim an aggravating circumstance" and the strengthening of the Office
of the Ombudsperson on Equal Opportunities.

In a somewhat unexpected sudden jump he also recommends that "As an
integral part of the focus on new minorities, the Government should
engage in efforts to prevent the emergence of Islamophobia as well as
discrimination and prejudice against other religions, particularly
those that were not historically present in Lithuania."




-- http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/20067/
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