OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Kairat Abdrakhmanov highlighted his open and constructive dialogue with the authorities in Latvia and representatives of national minorities, as well as civil society, during his first visit to the country from 18 to 21 March 2024.
The High Commissioner met with key State interlocutors, including Foreign Minister Krišjānis Kariņš, Culture Minister Agnese Logina, Education and Science Minister Anda Čakša, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Zanda Kalniņa-Lukašēvica, State Secretary at the Interior Ministry Dimitrijs Trofimovs and the Mayor of Daugavpils Andrejs Elksniņš. During discussions with officials, he shared his observations from views presented during a series of meetings with national minority representatives, activists from civil society, the media, principals, and students and teachers from a number of local schools in Riga and Daugavpils.
Abdrakhmanov thanked the Foreign Ministry for facilitating this fruitful visit, especially for the opportunity to discuss issues related to education, the use of language, citizenship, participation and media, among other topics. He also acknowledged the impact of the sensitive regional context on Latvia, which has resulted in specific national minority issues. The High Commissioner said that "notwithstanding the unprecedented security challenges in the region and the need of many participating States to adequately respond to them", he has urged the authorities to "create an environment that adequately reflects the rights and needs of all groups in society, by means of balanced, pragmatic and inclusive policies with gradual timeframes of implementation, as this can make societies more cohesive and resilient to tensions and conflict."
Reflecting on the changes to the education system, the High Commissioner commended the Latvian authorities for their efforts to promote the State language as a tool to facilitate the participation of national minorities in public life. At the same time, based on Latvia's longstanding experience in multilingual education, he encouraged the authorities to provide meaningful opportunities for national minorities to continue learning and practising their mother tongues, for adequate investment to support such programmes, and for close monitoring of implementation to ensure that a high quality of education is preserved at all levels, including for children with special needs. "Maintaining a share of locally produced media content in the Russian language would also be important as this can help to keep national minorities within the Latvian information space", he added. With regard to ongoing reforms in the immigration and citizenship sphere, he acknowledged the positive steps that had been taken recently; at the same time, he advised the authorities to address cases through individual, reasonable and proportional approaches. Continuous outreach to, and the meaningful involvement of, local communities and civil society in the development and implementation of policies affecting them is important for social integration, he concluded.
The High Commissioner discussed these issues with the Ombudsman of Latvia Juris Jansons, the Head of the State Language Centre Māris Baltiņš, and the Chairman of the National Electronic Mass Media Council Ivars Āboliņš, among other interlocutors, highlighting the role they play from the perspective of their respective mandates in safeguarding human rights, non-discrimination and good governance, including the protection of national minorities. The High Commissioner also stressed the importance of the State authorities' efforts to raise awareness and build confidence with persons belonging to national minorities.
As per his mandate, the High Commissioner is committed to assisting the OSCE participating States with the development and implementation of pragmatic, balanced and forward-looking policies in the area of national minority issues. The HCNM's Guidelines and Recommendations are an essential reference to that end. Facilitating exchanges of experiences and good practices is another important tool that the HCNM employs to support the work of all OSCE participating States dealing with integration questions. The High Commissioner has also paid close attention to policy changes in the OSCE area that have an impact on language use among national minorities in the past years.
"Latvia has been an important partner for the HCNM during the past 30 years. Its experience in dealing with national minority questions at a very delicate juncture of time has provided a useful contribution to such exchanges," said High Commissioner Kairat Abdrakhmanov.
