HEADLINES
Latvia's Foreign Minister, Artis Pabriks, meets with UK Ambassador to OSCE, Colin Munro On 29 July 2005, the Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Artis Pabriks, met with the Ambassador of the United Kingdom to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Colin Munro. The ambassador voiced his appreciation to Minister Pabriks for the successful work of Latvia's representation to the OSCE in voicing and defending Latvia's position. The minister informed the ambassador about Latvia's achievements in the integration of society. The minister stressed that the activity of people in learning the Latvian language and obtaining the Latvian citizenship shows a true wish to integrate into the Latvian society. Latvia has ensured all the relevant conditions for this, noted Mr Pabriks. The UK ambassador to the OSCE attested that the naturalization and societal integration was running successfully in Latvia and considered that this policy should be continued. The ambassador briefed the foreign minister on the process of OSCE reform. The UK diplomat noted that a constructive approach of the member states was important for a successful implementation of the reform. In this regard, Colin Munro mentioned Russia's role in that process. The minister expressed the belief that a closer co-operation between the European Union member states would allow dealing with problematic security and regional issues more effectively. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (29.07.2005) UK Ambassador to OSCE: Integration, not assimilation, taking place in Latvia On 29 July Ainars Latkovskis, the Special Assignments Minister for Social Integration, and Head of the Secretariat, Kristine Vagnere, met with Colin Munro, Head of the UK Delegation to the OSCE and Ian Bond, British Ambassador to Latvia. Mr Munro expressed interest in the achievements by the Secretariat in promoting tolerance in the society, the naturalization process, cooperation with national minorities' organisations, and the situation regarding radical elements. Mr Latkovskis was pleased to inform the meeting about the Secretariat's achievements in cooperation with national minorities' organizations and furthering tolerance in society, while emphasising the need for closer cooperation between organisations such as security forces in the work against racism and intolerance in Latvia. Mr Munro said he was pleasantly surprised that a process of integration, not assimilation, was occurring in Latvia, and also at the achievement in promoting tolerance and cooperation with foreign organisations. The Minister invited the UK Ambassador to visit Rezekne, to see at first hand the integration process in that city and to continue the successful cooperation with the UK Embassy on integration matters in Latvia. Secretariat of the Special Assignments Minister for Social Integration (29.07.2005) Civic Society Council established On 1 July 2005, the first session of the Civic Society Council was opened by the Special Assignments Minister for Social Integration, Ainars Latkovskis. The key task of the Council will be to provide consultations to the Secretariat on issues regarding the formation of a civic society. The Council will serve as the most significant mechanism to supervise the implementation of civic society policy documents - the Guidelines for Civic Society Strengthening Policy and the national programme " Strengthening of Civic Society 2005-2009". The main functions of the Council will be to provide information and consultations to the Secretariat on issues connected with the development of civic society, to give recommendations for strengthening civic society, to evaluate the progress reports on the implementation of the programme, as well as to assess and review the needs and recommendations featured in public opinions in order to include them in the review of the programme. The Council was established in May 2005 and is led by the Head of the Secretariat, Kristine Vagnere. Half of the Council members represent government institutions and the other half - the civic society. Representatives of local municipalities, who implement societal integration or civic society development programmes, take part in the work of the Council as well. The participants of the Council's first session were introduced to the research carried out on topics such as the formation of civic society in the largest cities of Latvia and ethnically mixed regions, as well as the development of civic society in Latvia, situations and analyses. The sessions of the Council will be open to experts, representatives of NGOs and other interested persons related to the issue to be discussed in each particular session. LETA (27.07.2005, 28.07.2005)
Strengthening of civic society – Social Integration Secretariat's next year's priority On 7 July 2005, the Special Assignments Minister for Social Integration, Ainars Latkovskis, met with the Minister of Finance, Oskars Spurdzins, to discuss the priorities and possibilities to allocate resources in the next year's budget. It is planned to ask the government to allocate 200,000 lats for strengthening civic society in order to ensure co-financing for non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Thereby, it will be possible to receive additional funding from the European Union for NGO projects. Increased support is envisaged next year to the smaller rural NGOs. While implementing the civic society strengthening programme, it is planned to devote more attention to the dissemination of information about the legislation on public benefit organisations. The Secretariat will continue its work to promote co-operation among NGOs, residents and local municipalities. This year methodology will be elaborated on ways to build co-operation between local municipalities and residents, due to be implemented next year. NGO study programmes, for example, in accounting or public relations, will also be launched. This year focuses mostly to research work on the current development of civic society; the results of this research will then next year be used to carry out specific activities. Implementation of the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities is among next year's priorities as well. That process will include work with national minority organisations, especially in the regions, organisation of various seminars, preparation of informative materials and other activities. Besides, next year the implementation of the support programme for the Latvian diaspora will continue, and the elaboration of a programme for Roma will start. LETA (07.07.2005)
Involvement of local governments in promoting societal integration The Latvian Ministry of Justice has proposed to amend the "Law on Local Governments" and rule that one of the functions of local governments be the promotion of societal integration in the respective local government. The idea to involve local governments in the promotion of societal integration more actively was based on the fact that these institutions are closer to the society and thus have greater possibility to influence the residents. However, this idea was rejected in negotiations with the Latvian Association of Local and Regional Governments (LALRG). The adviser of the LALRG, Maris Pukis, noted that if this norm were included in the law, it would mean that the main responsibility would lie on local governments and the state would then have it only as an additional function. But the LALRG considers, however, that the state would wish to retain it among its key functions and that therefore, the idea to involve local governments should be realized in other ways. Further the Ministry of Justice and the LALRG will seek, through negotiations, to find a mechanism for the attraction of resources aimed at increasing the role of local governments in the integration of society. Mr Pukis indicated that local governments could involve by co-operating with state institutions in raising the prestige of citizenship, which could be done by way of informing the non-citizens living in the territory of the respective local government about the possibilities to obtain citizenship. Local governments could also support educational establishments in building civic consciousness and fostering patriotic education, as well as in strengthening and promoting Latvian as the state language. Mr Pukis considers that the most appropriate way would be to establish a special programme in the state budget and allocate resources to local governments to boost the preparation of projects and application for financing. BNS (31.07.2005)
Experts advise to educate schoolchildren and teachers in order to reduce intolerance In order to reduce intolerance, discrimination and xenophobia, experts advise to start education of schoolchildren and teachers on the issues of integration, to draw public attention to lawsuits related to intolerance, as well as to promote the ideas of tolerance in the media. The informative bulletin prepared by the experts following the series of seminars "Role of Education, Dialogue and Participation in Promoting Integration of Society" says that in order to reduce intolerance, first of all it is necessary to foster legal activities on the part of the public – lawsuits as an opportunity to prove that people who take the liberty to express their intolerance towards otherness in action can be punished. Experts advise to educate young people on the issues of tolerance already in schools. In addition, teachers should be specifically educated on tolerance issues. Representatives of the seminar indicated that the media should engage in the promotion of tolerance as well. As part of the series of seminars, integration experts visited all the largest Latvian cities, and approximately 600 participants attended the seminars. The report prepared in the end of the project will later serve as an informative aid for pedagogues and schoolchildren in educational establishments. BNS (22.07.2005)
Positive evaluation of the reform During the previous school year 5 seminars were organized, in which the headmasters of all schools implementing national minority education programmes participated. The Deputy Director of the Department of General Education at the Ministry of Education and Science, Evija Papule, asserts that positive conclusions can be drawn about the implementation of the national minority education reform over the past year – the headmasters admit that the attitude of those teachers who teach their subjects in the state language has changed. They have ascertained that they can do it and that it is not as 'frightening' as they had previously feared. Both schoolchildren and teachers can work in the Latvian language not losing its quality and acquiring fully the content of the particular subject. The attitude of parents of minority schoolchildren has changed as well. The experience gained during the previous school year shows that in the regions in which the use of the Latvian language does not have an appropriate environment, teachers and schoolchildren wish to teach and to learn Latvian much more because they think of their future career prospects. Latvia is a good example of how bilingual education can be implemented in different areas with different ethnic, socio-economic indicators and historical experience. Latvijas Avize (13.07.2005)
Active interest by national minority representatives in acquisition of Latvian language Last year representatives of national minorities have shown particular interest in acquiring the Latvian language – altogether more than 14 thousand people have attended the Latvian language courses for adults and further education courses for pedagogues, which are organized by the National Agency for Latvian Language training (LVAVA). In the review presentation of the year 2004, the Director of the LVAVA, Aija Priedite, said the previous year had been one of the most active since the establishment of the LVAVA. Last year the free of charge Latvian language courses, which have been organized by the Agency since 1997, were attended by 7,856 people, and further education courses – by 7,000 pedagogues. The Latvian language courses for adults were attended by medics, parents of national minority schoolchildren, pre-school and minority school pedagogues, officials of local governments, employees in the internal affairs system, and enlistees. Last year was the first year when Latvian language courses were organized also for the unemployed. The LVAVA was established in 1996 and plans to operate until 2006, after which the Agency could change its profile and become a provider of consultations. BNS (06.07.2005)
More than 97,000 persons obtain citizenship by naturalization On 26 July 2005 The Latvian Cabinet of Ministers naturalized 613 applicants for Latvian citizenship, including 41 children. Of 572 applicants, 71% were Russians, 8% - Ukrainians, 11% - Belarusians, and the rest - Lithuanians, Poles and other nationalities. 15% of the applicants had primary education, 59% - secondary, and 23% - tertiary education. Since 1995, 97,212 persons have obtained Latvian citizenship by means of naturalization. In 1995, 984 persons were naturalized; in 1996 - 3016; 1997 - 2992; 1998- 4439; 1999- 12 427; 2000 - 14 900; 2001 - 10 637, 2002 - 9 844; 2003 - 10 049; 2004 -16 064; 2005 -11 860. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Current news (22-29.07.2005) Statistics on naturalisation (as at 30 June 2005)
Collection of lectures on Latvia for national minority schoolchildren On 22 July 2005, collection of lectures for national minority teachers and schoolchildren on Latvia's history, political system, citizenship, naturalisation and image was presented by the association "Political Education Initiative" at the Park Hotel Ridzene. The collection is intended as a teaching aid for teachers and schoolchildren and will be distributed in Latvian schools and libraries. Teachers, lecturers, officials from the Ministry of Education and Science, Secretariat of the Special Assignments Minister for Social Integration, representatives of the Society Integration Foundation, journalists and other interested persons were invited to participate in the presentation of the collection. As part of the European Union PHARE grant programme "Promotion of Societal Integration in Latvia", the association "Political Education Initiative" in co-operation with the national minority schools of Latvian regions has organised 18 seminars during the past school year; the materials from these seminars have now been included in the collection. The seminars were led by experts in society integration issues. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Artis Pabriks, and the Special Assignments Minister for Social Integration, Ainars Latkovskis, also participated in the project as lecturers. The seminars took place as part of the project "Role of Education, Dialogue and Participation in Promoting the Process of Society Integration". BNS (18.07.2005)
Exhibition "Citizenship in Latvia and in the European Union" On 4 July 2005, the Naturalisation Board of Latvia opened an exhibition "Citizenship in Latvia and in the European Union" in Riga. The exhibition featured six stands containing information on the history of laws and regulations governing the citizenship in Latvia and on the naturalisation criteria in other member states of the European Union. The visitors of the exhibition could also learn about the citizenship of the European Union. The exhibition was open for visitors until 29 July, and further it continued its way to other local municipalities of the Riga district. Naturalisation Board of Latvia (04.07.2005) Different cultures meet at a festival On 17 July 2005, the World Music Festival took place in Riga. The festival featured traditional music ensembles of national minorities living in the Nordic and Baltic countries. It demonstrated how rich in their national traditions the nationalities living in Latvia are, as almost every of its foreign cultural societies has its own ensemble. The trends in the modern culture over the past years testify that the maintenance of one's ethnic identity attributes in the modern multi-cultural environment becomes increasingly important. A number of festivals in Latvia have already been devoted to the traditional music of different nationalities. Alongside with the ensembles of the societies of different nationalities living in Latvia, the participants could also get acquainted with the Finnish traditional manner of singing – yoiking; the best group of yoiking masters – "Wimme" - gave its performance. In her performance, the well-known Polish folk singer Joanna Slovinska intertwined the traditions of ancient Polish music with the elements of Slavic, Roma and Jewish music. Latvijas Avize (15.07.2005)
Artistic Days' celebration for Roma youth From 28-31 July, in Sabile, the traditional Sabile Wine festival featured Roma young people's Artistic Days "Puda racha". The Artistic Days included walks along Sabile's paths, a theatrical musical performance "Puda racha" and the singing of romantic Gypsy songs around a campfire. The Artistic days are held with the support of the EU Programme "YOUTH". Their objective is to involve young Roma people in cultural activities, creating the opportunity for every young person to take part in the preservation, development and popularisation of Roma cultural and social traditions. The event is organised by the Sabile Roma Youth Group "Taboras Romance". BNS (26.07.2005) For more information:
Newsletter "Societal Integration in Latvia: Towards Mutual Understanding and Cooperation" is a compilation of press releases and news reports drawn from the mass media and official sources. Not all of the views published reflect the official position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. |
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