nrt24.ru
Riga needs to activate the work on integration of national minorities, recommends the Council of Europe European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, IA Sputnik reports. Latvia has to provide participation of minorities in the social life, as noted in corresponding Committee report. Among some achievements of Latvia in this field are decrease of the number of non-citizens, more opportunities to learn Latvian language. At the same time an integration process seems to be more complicated. Latvians often don't trust national minorities and feel threatened by them.
The report underlines that division by ethnical separation of society is enshrined in the Constitution.
Riga actively promotes the national language in various fields such as education, madia, government; and restricts the right of the national minorities to learn and speak their native language, which impedes integration process.
The language proficiency requirements becoming more and more strict, reducing the opportunities for the national minorities. Deputy's mandates of free representation are being revoked because of insufficient usage of the state language.
The report talks also about schools for national minorities and extending Latvian in these schools. The report had been issued before Latvian authorities supported Russian schools' liquidation law.
Russkiy Mir
