Language Lessons
Friday, Apr. 19, 2002
The European Court of Human Rights ruled on 9 April that Latvia violated the European Convention on Human Rights when local officials barred Ingrida Podkolzina from running as a candidate in the country's 1998 parliamentary elections.
Podkolzina, a member of the Russian-speaking minority in Latvia, was barred from running in the elections on the grounds that she had not demonstrated adequate knowledge of the Latvian language. Under Latvia's electoral law, all candidates running for office in national or municipal elections must be fluent in both spoken and written Latvian.
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The Strasbourg-based court ruled that Podkolzina's rights were violated since she had received a valid language proficiency certificate from local authorities but was later denied the right to run in the elections on the basis of further testing. The court noted that the validity of the first certificate was never questioned by the authorities. It awarded Podkolzina 7,500 euros ($6,563) plus 1,500 euros for legal costs, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported.
The court did not challenge the language requirement itself, which is part of the country's electoral law and has been criticized by the Russian-speaking minority, various human rights groups, and the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). In a press release on the ruling, the court said it was not for it to decide "the choice of the working language of a national parliament." Last year, Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga called for the requirement to be scrapped, calling it excessively severe and undemocratic.
Ethnic Russians make up about 30% of Latvia's population, and a large proportion speaks little or no Latvian. Ethnic Poles, Belarusians, and Ukrainians make up another 10% of the population.
Kristine Malinovska, Latvia's representative for human rights institutions, said the court's verdict had been expected, according to RFE/RL. She said the verdict showed that the country's current language requirements are adequate. In contrast, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying the court's decision demonstrated the "presence of serious problems with the ensuring of the rights of the Russian-speaking population in Latvia."
Meanwhile, the OSCE's high commissioner on minority issues, Rolf Ekeus, expressed his support for what he said was "the Latvian government's intention of amending the law," according to the BBC monitoring service. He said getting rid of the requirement is a "necessary criteria for a functioning democratic society."
According to a press release from the court, Podkolzina had obtained the required language proficiency certificate in 1998 from local language authorities in the town of Daugavpils. But a week after she registered as a candidate for the National Harmony Party in the Latgale constituency, she was visited by an examiner from the State Language Center. The examiner started up a conversation with her in Latvian, asking, among other things, why she supported the National Harmony Party.
The next day, she was visited again by the same examiner and asked to write an exam in Latvian. Podkolzina reportedly started writing the test in the presence of witnesses but eventually tore it up. The examiner then wrote a report stating that Podkolzina did not have an adequate command of the Latvian language and the Central Electoral Commission scratched her name off the list of candidates. In its ruling, the European Court of Human Rights "expressed surprise" that Podkolzina had been asked about the "reasons for her political affinities."
This article was edited and adapted from Transitions Online. A longer version is available at: www.tol.cz
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