Press Report

Deputy-Head of the Naturalization Board Janis Kahanovics visited Russian Secondary School No. 12 in Riga. During his meeting with students and teachers he agreed that school graduates could be exempt from taking naturalization tests in the Latvian language since they have to pass mandatory language tests in schools. Among the reasons for a weak interest toward naturalization typical for the young, the teachers mentioned the situation when youngsters could receive citizenship through naturalization while their parents and teachers could not. Another reason is a pragmatic approach to citizenship among young people who tend to analyze all the benefits and disadvantages of taking citizenship. Mr. Kahanovics noted that such an approach would only deepen the gap between citizens and non-citizens. Diena

The Latvian Human Rights Committee participated in the NGO forum in Riga on September 26-28. Co-chairman of the Committee Gennady Kotov noted a decrease of the number of the complaints on citizenship-related issues addressed to the Committee. Most of such complaints are now connected with annulment of citizenship due to mistakes or inaccuracies in the Register of Inhabitants data base. Mr. Kotov stressed that no complaints were related to the work of the Naturalization Board. He also mentioned productive co-operation between the Human Rights Committee and the State Human Rights Office. Diena

The Estonian Parliament adopted an amendment to the Education Law that postpones the introduction of Estonian as the only language of instruction in secondary schools until the year 2007. The Law in its initial version provided for the closing of Russian secondary schools in the year 2000. The Estonian legislation does not restrict higher education in the Russian language. SM