Unofficial translation from Russian

PRESS RELEASE

On September 26 deputies of the Latvian Saeima from the factions of the government coalition again rejected the initiative of the association "For Human Rights in United Latvia," which had once more proposed to ratify the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, on which the signature of Latvia has been affixed since 1995 as a member of this authoritative international organization. Thus, the nationalist majority in the Latvian Saeima has reaffirmed its political line to the continuation of discrimination against the nontitular population of the country and disregard for European human rights standards, which is obviously at variance with the official statements by Riga about the importance of the integration of Latvian society and its desire to improve relations with Russia.

We hope that the new refusal by the Saeima of Latvia to fulfill the appropriate PACE recommendation and bring one of the Council of Europe's major documents into force will also be noted by observers from the PACE Monitoring Committee, whose representatives will visit Latvia in November for acquaintance with the humanitarian situation on the ground so as to decide the question of the advisability of resumption of monitoring on the Latvian "dossier."

September 30, 2002