Cabinet of Ministers endorses Report on activities of Cabinet of Ministers Representative in International Human Rights Organisations

On 29 September the report of the Cabinet of Ministers Representative in International Human Rights Organisations concerning its activities in 2008 was confirmed at a sitting of the Cabinet of Ministers.

In 2008 eight new applications have been sent to the government for its observations. In comparison with the previous years, the Office of the Representative received 43, 22 and 9 new applications in 2007, 2006 and 2005, respectively. During the first five months of 2009 11 new applications were sent for government's observations. At present, the total number of applications received amounts to 160. It is estimated that this number will become stable remaining relatively high.

Similarly to the previous years, the majority of the applications received in 2008 concerned alleged violations of the right to a fair trial (Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights) and the right to liberty and security of person (Article 5) under the then Latvian Code of Criminal Procedure. The code lost its effect on 30 September 2005. Year 2008 marks an increase in the number of alleged complaints on violations of Article 6 in civil procedure. In addition, the Office of the Representative received the first complaint on alleged violations of Article 5 regarding persons being institutionalised by force in a mental hospital.

Classifying by field all active cases which were in the records of the Office on 31 December 2008, the following division was reached: 51 applications on alleged human rights violations under criminal procedure, nine applications under civil procedure and 6 applications under administrative procedure.

Last year the Court Section made decisions on partial admittance of complaints for further examination on the merits in cases of Tess v. Latvia, Larionovs v. Latvia and Kirsteins v. Latvia. In addition, having received the observations of the government, the Court Section made a decision on the admittance of complaints for examination on the merits in the case of "Petropavlovskis v. Latvia", as well as on the non-admittance of complaints for examination on the merits in the case of "Plotina v. Latvia", as the applicant had not exhausted all domestic remedies available to her.

In 2008 the Court delivered the decision to strike a case out of the list of cases 13 times on the basis of peaceful settlements, a unilateral declaration by the government of Latvia or due to other reasons. The government made the decision to enter the procedure of amicable settlement in eight cases (all sent to the government in 2007), whereas in one case it made the decision to end the negotiation procedure of amicable settlements. 

During 2008 the Court delivered four Court Section judgements in cases against Latvia, stating in all of them that at least one violation of the Convention had been made. The Grand Chamber of the Court rejected two out of three cases, where the government of Latvia appealed against the judgements delivered by Court Section. Following the appeal by the government, the case "Kononovs v. Latvia" was admitted for examination before the Grand Chamber of the Court on 24 January 2009. The hearing took place on 20 May 2009.

The proportion of compensations that the Court ruled to Latvia in 2008 remains insignificant if compared with the amount initially claimed by the applicants, comprising less than 10% or 10 893.46 lats. A much more significant sum was paid in cases, where the government reached a peaceful settlement or filed a unilateral declaration to the Court, amounting to 20 874 lats. Since 2000 Latvia has paid a total of 115 791 lats in compensations in relation to the Court proceedings.

At the sitting of 27 May 2008 the Cabinet of Ministers adopted an order on a working group for the implementation in Latvia of the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The report was drawn up during the following a year and was confirmed at Cabinet of Ministers sitting on 14 July 2009.

On 15 July 2008 the Cabinet endorsed "The National Report on Latvia's adherence to the UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination from 2003 to 2007".

Finally, in 2008 the Office of the Representative continued to analyse the consistency between several normative enactments and international human rights standards, as well as their consistency with the international obligations undertaken by Latvia. The staff of the Office also took part in working groups which prepared normative enactments and provided its opinion concerning those already prepared.

The full text of the report of the Cabinet of Ministers Representative in International Human Rights Organizations is available on the home page of the Foreign Ministry www.mfa.gov.lv, section: About the Ministry/Publications and on the home page of the Cabinet of Ministers www.mk.gov.lv.

 

(End of text)