Photo credit: mtdata.ru
The Latvian Human Rights Committee (LHRC) appealed to the Constitutional Court with a demand to study the government’s decision of transition of all the country's pre-school institutions into the state language in compliance with the country's main law.
The new rules will come into effect in a month, September 1, Sputnik reports. Communication with children over five years during games will be conducted only in Latvian. The only exception is made for classes aimed at studying the native language of national minorities.
The LHRC is confident that the new rules are discriminatory in relation to national minorities, which is contrary to the Latvian Constitution.
According to one of the leaders of the public organization Vladimir Buzayev, children spend almost all their time in kindergartens playing games. There is a bit of everyday communication, but at these moments, if a teacher does not want to speak Russian with a child, he or she simply won’t do it.
The human rights activist emphasized that the number and frequency of language activities for national minorities were not indicated in the law. Some kindergartens may be able to create a special program for children of national minorities, and even get a license and accreditation for it but it is not clear when this will be done. Therefore, there is simply no guarantee that the children will be taught Russian at all.
The appeal to the Constitutional Court has good chances to be adopted. But even if it is rejected, efforts will not be wasted. The Cabinet of Ministers discussed this issue for a little more than half a minute and reviewed it only once instead of three, so now it will have to report to the court on this issue, the human rights activist is sure.
Russkiy Mir
