Articles 4 and 114 of the Constitution of Latvia form the foundation for language policy in Latvia, declaring Latvian to be the official state language and affirming the rights of ethnic minorities to preserve and develop their languages. Livonian language is recognized as "the language of the indigenous (autochthon) population" in the Official Language Law, but Latgalian written language is protected as "a historic variant of Latvian." All other languages are considered foreign by the Law on State Language (Official Language Law in other translations). Latvia provides national minority education programmes in Russian (the first language for over one third of the population), Polish, Hebrew, Ukrainian, Estonian, Lithuanian, and Belarusian.
The preamble to the Official Language Law includes as its goals "the integration of members of ethnic minorities into the society of Latvia, while observing their rights to use their native language or other languages; [and] the increased influence of Latvian in the cultural environment of Latvia, to promote a more rapid integration of society."
Legal framework The official language (valsts valoda, literally state language) in Latvia is Latvian; this status has been explicitly defined since 1988. In 1992, amendments to the 1989 Law on Languages strengthened the position of Latvian. All other languages, except the native Livonian language, are defined as foreign languages in Section 5 of the Official Language Law of 1999. Section 3.3 stipulates that '[t]he State shall ensure the development and use of the Latvian sign language for communication with people with impaired hearing.'
Since 1998, the official status of Latvian has been written into the Constitution (Article 4); and since 2002, MPs have been asked to promise to strengthen Latvian as the only official language in order to take their seats (Article 18). In the Constitution's chapter on human rights, rights to get answers from authorities in Latvian are specified since 2002 (Article 104). The current Official Language Law was not amended since its adoption in 1999 (as of 2017).
In 1995, Latvia signed, and in 2005 ratified the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. When ratifying it, the Latvian Saeima (Parliament) made two declarations (worded as reservations) limiting the implementation of Articles 10 and 11. As of 2008, Latvia did not plan to sign the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.Third report on Latvia by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, 2008 – see Paragraph 4
Language policy is implemented by a number of institutions: the State Language Commission (under the President) prepares proposals in this field; the State Language Centre (under the Ministry of Justice) executes control, imposes fines for administrative violations and translates documents of international significance; the Latvian Language Agency (under the Ministry of Education and Science) provides consultations and opportunities for learning Latvian and analyses the language situation.
Official use of languages
Since the Official Language Law came into force in 2000, submitting documents to the government (local included) and state public enterprises is allowed in Latvian only, except in cases specially defined in the law (emergency services, foreign residents, etc.), according to Section 10. From 1992 to 2000, authorities had to accept documents in Russian, German and English, too, and were allowed to answer in the language of the application.1992 Law on Languages — Sections 8, 9
Before the losses of the Latvian government in the cases Podkolzina v. Latvia (ECHR) and Ignatāne v. Latvia (UN HRC), a certain level of command in Latvian was asked for eligibility to Parliament and local councils. In practice, this had led to re-examinations of various candidates, at least sometimes unexpected, which prevented Ignatāne and Podkolzina (representatives of the Equal Rights party in the 1997 local and 1998 parliamentary electionsЖданова Д. ООН встала на защиту «Равноправия», «Час» 10.08.01.) from participation. As of 2011, candidates do not need to prove language proficiency, but elected members of Saeima and local councilorsLaw on status of member of republican city or municipality council — See Section 4 can be deprived of mandate for insufficient command of Latvian.
Names and surnames in Latvian-issued documents are formed in Latvianized form, according to Section 19. These provisions were subject in ECHR cases Kuhareca v. LatviaECHR decision in case No. 71557/01 and Mencena v. LatviaECHR decision in case No. 71074/01 (both declared inadmissible in 2004), since the Latvian Constitutional Court had found them constitutional in 2001. An analogous application was submitted to UN HRC in 2007 and won by the applicant on grounds of privacy (Raihman v. Latvia).
Toponyms are formed in Latvian only (on the Livonian coast in Livonian as well), according to Section 18 of the Official Language Law.
The Electronic Mass Media Law orders to use only Latvian in the first channels of public radio and television, and basically Latvian in their second channels (Section 66).
The government of Latvia in its policy documents refers to Latvia as a (democratic) nation state,State programme "Social integration in Latvia" – see p. 8Guidelines of cultural policy 2006–2015 "Nation state" constructing societal integration on the basis of Latvian,State programme "Social integration in Latvia" – see p. 4 while respecting the diversity of languages. Unity block, comprising most of the governing coalition as of 2011, also describes Latvia as a nation state. The idea of the nation state, where "language = nation", is seen as the core and main engine of the language policy of the Latvian state.Dilāns, Gatis Valodas politika — vai 2004. gada reformas dziļākais pamatojums ir objektīvi analizēts? Critics draw parallels between measures of the Latvian government and the assimilation of linguistic minorities in various countries.Dilāns, Gatis Valodas plānošanas politika un integrācija Latvijā pēc 1990. gada
One critic, James Hughes, Reader in Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science, has pointed out that Russian-speakers in Latvia constitute one of the largest linguistic minorities in Europe, therefore he considers Latvia's language laws to be denying Russophones their language rights, and thus they are contrary to international practice in the field of minority rights. Nataliya Pulina in Moskovskiye Novosti asserts that Latvia's Russophones are by percentage actually the largest linguistic minority in the EU whose language has no official status.
Among the political parties, ForHRUL offers in its programme to grant official status to Russian in municipalities where it is native for more than 20% of the population. In a draft of its political programme,HC programme project – section "Cultural and language diversity": Russian, Latvian Harmony Centre offers to grant co-official status to Latgalian and Russian in printed media, public sphere and education (for Russian, in communication with authorities, as well), stressing its support for the sole state language. Both these parties are in permanent opposition on the state level.
According to research conducted by the Baltic Institute of Social Sciences in 2004, the majority (77%) of ethnic Latvians opposed (56%) or mostly opposed (21%) granting Russian status as a second official language, while the majority (87%) of ethnic Russians supported (59%) or mostly supported (28%) such status, while a majority (75%) of other ethnicities also supported (40%) or rather supported (35%) such status (sample size was 1,018 respondents, with 51% supporting or rather supporting official status for Russian and 44% opposing or rather opposing it).
Private use of languages The Law on Electronic Media prescribes that national and regional electronic media need to broadcast at least 65% in Latvian (section 32). Besides, films aired in any channel should be dubbed in Latvian or have the original soundtrack and Latvian subtitles; TV broadcasts in languages other than Latvian, except news, live events, language learning broadcasts, and retranslated content, must be subtitled in Latvian.(Section 28). The same concerns films shown in cinemas, according to Section 17 of Official Language Law. Until a judgement of the Constitutional Court upon request of 24 ForHRUL MPs (delivered in 2003), broadcasting in minority languages was limited for private TV and radio (originally within 30%, since 1998 within 25%).
According to Section 6 of Official Language Law, levels of skills in Latvian are defined for various professions, which concern the legitimate public interest. Totally, there are six levels and two lists of professions (longer for the public sector and shorter for the private sector), classified by required level. For those who did not get an education in Latvian and are not disabled, an examination is required to define their skills in Latvian, to work in these professions. Those who fail to show the required level during inspections can be fined. The labour market shows high demand for skills in Latvian, Russian and English languages.Valodu prasmes ietekme uz ekonomiski aktīvo iedzīvotāju dzīves kvalitāti 2006
According to Section 11 of State Language Law, organizers of public events have to provide in Latvian information, which concerns legitimate public interest (defined in Section 2 – public safety, health care et cetera). The same affects posters, billboards and signboards, according to Section 21. Previously, according to the Law of languages as amended in 1992 (Section 5), organizers of any public event had to provide a translation into Latvian in their conferences. An exemption had existed for organizations of ethnic minorities and religious organizations; 1997 Law on Meetings, Processions and Pickets has foreseen free choice of language in meetings, pickets and processions, too (Section 19).
Education
Since the beginning of the 1990s, some Polish language schools were created besides the existing schools with Latvian and Russian language of instruction. Certain schools (e.g., Riga Dubnov Jewish Secondary school, founded in 1989, and Riga Ukrainian Secondary School, founded in 1991, which had originally used Ukrainian as language of instruction, but switched to Latvian in 1993/1994Puķītis, Māris Ivans mācās «pa latviski»//"Nedēļa", 6 September 2005. ) now include in their curriculum lessons in respective minority languages. The number of Russian schools is decreasing,Vispārējā izglītība partly due to natural demographic decline and partly due to emigration, as the following table demonstrates, with some schools with apparent viability closed.Minority protection in Latvia Open Society Institute, 2001, p. 291–292
Number of students by language of instruction (Ministry of Education and Science) School year 95–96 99–00 00–01 01–02 02–03 03–04 04–05 05–06 06–07 Latvian 203,607 239,163 242,475 242,183 237,425 230,212 214,855 205,189 194,230 Russian 132,540 120,925 116,009 108,454 101,486 95,841 84,559 77,471 70,683 Others 1513 1344 1344 1352 1397 1305 1253 1287 1198 Total 337,660 361,432 359,818 351,989 340,308 327,358 300,667 283,947 266,111 % learning in Latvian 60.3 66.2 67.4 68.8 69.8 70.3 71.5 72.3 73.0
As at 2007, there was also an increasing number of minority children attending Latvian-language schools.Third report on Latvia by ECRI – see Paragraph 54