OREANDA-NEWS. The decision to transfer the schools of national minorities, including Russian, completely to the Latvian language of instruction is political and justifies discrimination against the Russian-speaking population of the republic, said Alexander Brod, a member of the Human Rights Council under the President (HRO).  Earlier, the Latvian Constitutional Court recognized the decision to translate schools of national minorities, including Russian, into the Latvian language of instruction fully in line with the Constitution.

"I think this is a political decision that justifies discrimination of the Russian-speaking population by the Latvian authorities, which will lead to the assimilation of Russians. In recent years, these processes have been aggravated, and this is a reduction of the Russian-language media and constant pressure on human rights defenders, journalists, experts who advocate for Russian language, Russian culture, who advocate the continuation of the Russian-Latvian contacts ", - said Brod.

According to a member of the HRC, he has already managed to communicate with Latvian human rights defenders; they intend to appeal this decision to the ECHR. Brod said that "they regularly report on these blatant processes in the Council of Europe, the OSCE, the UN, international organizations, point out in their reports the facts of discrimination against Russian-speaking people, make recommendations to the Latvian authorities," but all these actions do not lead to any result. 

“I’ll appeal to my colleagues in the Human Rights Council in order to prepare an appeal to the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. (Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunje - ed.) Miyatović, who was recently in the HRO. connection with problems in Latvia, she said that she would visit this country and meet with her colleague, the Ombudsman of Latvia, ”added the human rights activist.