The European Union without Statelesness (EUWS)

Latvian Human Rights Committee (LHRC) and Legal Information Centre for Human Rights (LICHR) have submitted an application to Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) on a project on studying mass statelessness in Latvia and Estonia. Below, the main sources used by LHRC while drafting the project are indicated: web addresses of publications mentioned, grounds for financial estimates underlying digits in the application, information on the partners to co-operate in the project and other additional information.

In case of approval of the project, information on its execution will be made available on the same website.

1. Short description of the project (part C.4 of application)

Latvia and Estonia, whose population is, respectively, 0.4% and 0.3% of that of the EU, are the strongholds of statelessness in the European Union. [1]. 70 % of the approximately 450 000 EU permanent stateless residents are living in Latvia and 22% in Estonia. [2]. Nevertheless, Latvia is the 10th among EU member states by annual naturalisation rates per capita (0.163%), Estonia – the 17th (0.088%). [3]. The stateless persons mostly belong to the traditional minorities in both countries, and compose, respectively, 38% and 22% of ethnic minority population of Latvia and Estonia. [см. 1].

LHRC, without attracting EU funds, conducts a long-term monitoring on the issues of mass statelessness. The monitoring includes researching the rate of reducing statelessness, evaluating the efficacy of naturalisation and other means of obtaining citizenship, impact of statelessness on the legal situation of national minorities (use of native tongue, education, employment), analysis of implementation of international recommendations given to Latvia and informing the respective institutions. In 2013, this programme foresees, among other things, an update to the list of differences in rights between the citizens and permanently resident stateless persons, and publishing a 150-page brochure [4].

EACEA support (EUWS project) is needed for a comparative analysis of the situation with mass statelessness in the neighbouring Estonia, for attracting the attention of the public, media and the governments of both states, as well as EU bodies (in the context of the Year of European Citizenship) to the situation [5]. The project foresees organising three human rights conferences, publishing a joint brochure in the volume of 50 pages, preparing a joint statement and recommendations for the governments of both countries and EU bodies. An analysis of implementing the recommendations given to Estonia and Latvia by the European Parliament on their accession to the EU (resolution 5_TA(2004)0180), in advance of their tenth anniversary in March 2014, is planned. [6].

References:

[1] The data on the number and composition of the population of Latvia and Estonia are reflected in the table below. The total number of residents of the EU, as at 2012, was 503 million[1].

Comparative data on status of population groups

in Estonia and Latvia (2011-2012)[2]

Estonia / Latvia
absol. / rel. / rel. to min. / absol. / rel. / rel. to min.
Total population / 1339662 / 100 / 2070371 / 100
Ethnic Estonians/Latvians / 924966 / 69,0 / 1285136 / 62,1
Ethnic minorities / 414696 / 31,0 / 100 / 785235 / 37,9 / 100
Local citizens / 1146610 / 85,6 / 1728213 / 83,5
Citizens belonging to minorities / 221644 / 16,5 / 53,4 / 443077 / 21,4 / 56,4
Naturalised citizens / 154349 / 11,5 / 37,2 / 138878 / 6,7 / 17,7
Stateless “non-citizens” / 92351 / 6,9 / 22,3 / 295122 / 14,3 / 37,6
Citizens of Russia / 94638 / 7,1 / 22,8 / 34091 / 1,6 / 4,3

[2] The data on the number of stateless persons in the EU is reflected in the table below:

The number of stateless persons in the EU member states

(UN OHCR data – 2011/2012)[3]

State / Number / %
Latvia / 312362 / 70,06
Estonia / 97749 / 21,92
Sweden / 10344 / 2,32
Germany / 8044 / 1,80
Finland / 3614 / 0,81
Lithuania / 3480 / 0,78
Denmark / 3183 / 0,71
The Netherlands / 2005 / 0,45
France / 1180 / 0,26
Italy / 1176 / 0,26
Poland / 763 / 0,17
Belgium / 697 / 0,16
Austria / 464 / 0,10
Greece / 205 / 0,05
United Kingdom / 205 / 0,05
Luxembourg / 177 / 0,04
Hungary / 89 / 0,02
Slovakia / 63 / 0,01
Spain / 36 / 0,01
Portugal / 31 / 0,01
Bulgaria / 0 / 0
Czech Republic / 0 / 0
Ireland / 0 / 0
Cyprus / 0 / 0
Malta / 0 / 0
Romania / 0 / 0
Slovenia / 0 / 0
Total / 445867 / 100

[3] The data on comparative rate of granting citizenship in certain EU countries and Iceland (as at 2010) are reflected in the following table:

The rates of naturalisation in certain EU member states and Iceland[4]

State / Population / Naturalised / %
Luxembourg / 502066 / 4311 / 0,859
Sweden / 9340682 / 32457 / 0,347
Belgium / 10839905 / 34636 / 0,320
United Kingdom / 62026962 / 194842 / 0,314
Spain / 45989016 / 123721 / 0,269
Cyprus / 803147 / 1937 / 0,241
Malta / 414372 / 943 / 0,228
France / 64694497 / 143275 / 0,221
Portugal / 10637713 / 21750 / 0,204
Latvia / 2248374 / 3660 / 0,163
The Netherlands / 16574989 / 26275 / 0,159
Ireland / 4467854 / 6387 / 0,143
Iceland / 317630 / 450 / 0,142
Germany / 81802257 / 104600 / 0,128
Italy / 60340328 / 65938 / 0,109
Slovenia / 2046976 / 1840 / 0,090
Estonia / 1340127 / 1184 / 0,088

[4] Taking into account, that LHRC realises a part of the programme without EACEA support, the present webpage can contain some updated information, received during the consideration of the EUWS project.

[5] The priorities of the European year of citizens 2013: http://europa.eu/citizens-2013/

[6] In the European Parliament resolution 5_TA(2004)0180, reduction of mass statelessness in Estonia is covered in Paragraph 54, in Latvia – Paragraph 74

The text of the resolution is available online: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P5-TA-2004-0180+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

2. Experience of the project organisers in the field concerned (part D.1 of application)

2.1 List of LHRC monographs:

In EU languages

1. Citoyens d'un etat non-existant", 2012 (to be made available online)

2. "Citizens of a non-existent state", 2011, second edition: http://www.zapchel.lv/i/doc/Citizens_Web.pdf

3. "Citizens of a non-existent state", 2008, first edition: http://www.lhrc.lv/biblioteka/CITIZENS_OF_A_NON_EXISTENT_STATE.pdf

4. The last prisoners of the cold War, 2006: http://www.zapchel.lv/i/doc/last_prisoners.pdf

In Russian:

1. Правовое положение русскоговорящего меньшинства в Латвии (Legal situation of the Russian-speaking minority in Latvia). 2012 - in print, as at January 2013

2. ЛКПЧ – 20 лет в борьбе за справедливость[5] (LHRC – 20 years for struggle for justice), 2012 – to be made available online

3. Как выживают русских. О последствиях национальной политики Латвии, 2010: http://www.lhrc.lv/biblioteka/Boozaev_kniga_2010.pdf

4. Неграждане Латвии. 2007: http://www.lhrc.lv/biblioteka/Negrazhdane_Latvii.pdf

5. Тенденции изменения правового статуса различных групп российских соотечественников, постоянно проживающих в Латвийской Республике, 2004: http://www.lhrc.lv/biblioteka/tendencii_2004_2.pdf

A joint publication of LICHR and LCHR, in English

Chance to Survive. Minority Rights in Estonia and Latvia, 2009: http://www.lichr.ee/main/assets/L-3-eng.pdf

2.2. Information on the roundtable “Minority rights in the Baltic countries. Experience of international defence”

Television

Channell / Programme / Interviewee/content / NB
PBK / Латвийское время (The times of Latvia), 10.12.2012 / Reporting from the roundtable
PBK / Вечернее интервью (evening interview), 10.12.2012 / T. Zdanoka (LHRC)[6]
PRO100TV / «Вопрос с пристрастием» (A subjective question), 10.12.2012[7] / V. Buzajevs (LHRC) and A. Semjonov (LICHR) / A. Semjonov has visited Riga, being invited to the roundtable
PRO100TV / «Вопрос с пристрастием» (A subjective question), 12.12.2012[8] / A. Brod (Russia) / A. Brod has visited Riga, being invited to the roundtable

Print media

Publication / Date / Title of the article / Author
«Вести сегодня» (Vesti segodnya) / 09.01.2013 / Тиски сжимаются… (Tiski szhimayutsya…)[9] / E. Cujanova
«Вести сегодня» (Vesti segodnya) / 09.01.2013 / Лом, завернутый в газетку (Lom, zavernutyj v gazetku)[10] / E. Cujanova
«Латвийские Вести» (Latviyskie Vesti) / 17.01.2013 / За права человека (Za prava cheloveka)[11] / I. Harlanova

2.3. List of differences in rights between citizens and “non-citizens” of Latvia

(in English) Appendix I to book "Citizens of a non-existent state"

(in Latvian) http://www.lhrc.lv/?lang=lv&mendes=men2_men2c

(in Russian) http://www.russkie.org.lv/node/121

Notably, the list of differences is also distributed through a CD ROM, containing more than 70 text documents (over 40 Megabytes).

2.4. Case Andrejeva v. Latvia (European Court of Human Rights, No. 55707/00)

The relevant links are available in the correspondence between LHRC and the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe[12] (see also differences 65 and 66 in Appendix I to the book "Citizens of a non-existent state").

3. Project implementation / Award criteria (Part E of the application)

3.1. Differences in rights between citizens and non-citizens of Latvia, mentioned in Part E1 of the application (see Appendix I to book "Citizens of a non-existent state"):

- between the stateless non-citizens and citizens of other EU member states – differences Nos. 24-26, 29-31, 35-37, 51,52, 62-64, 77-79;

- concerning local elections: difference No. 35, described also on pp. 18-19 of the book;

- concerning calculating pensions and unemployment benefits – differences Nos. 65, 66 (see also above 2.4)

- concerning the status of a person who were subject to political repressions – difference No. 77

3.2. The share of Latvia-born “non-citizens” (stateless permanent residents) mentioned in Part E1 of the application, is taken from Table No. 2 of the Second Report on the Implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities by the Republic of Latvia (p. 67), available online at http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/minorities/3_FCNMdocs/PDF_2nd_SR_Latvia_en.pdf

3.3. The international recommendations to Latvia, mentioned in Part E2- E4 of the application:

- see book "Citizens of a non-existent state", pages 20-28 (as at 2011).

3.4. NGOs and their associations mentioned in Part E2- E4 of the application

FIDH – http://www.fidh.org/-english-

AEDH – http://www.aedh.eu/?lang=en

Moscow Bureau on Human Rights - http://www.antirasizm.ru/index.php/englishinformation

EU Russian-speakers Alliance - http://www.eursa.eu/

Council of Non-Governmental Organisations of Latvia - http://www.russkie.org.lv/node/21

[1] http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&plugin=1&language=en&pcode=tps00001

[2] Data on the population of Estonia and then umber of ethnic Estonians – from the website of the Department of Statistics (01.01.2012), citizenship data (01.07.2012 ) – from website http://estonia.eu/about-estonia/society/estonians.html, Data on the population of Latvia, number of ethnic Latvians and persons with different legal statuses – 2011 census, naturalisation data – Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (01.07.2012)

[3] UN HCR website with information on ecery state: http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home . The relevant groups are classified as “stateless persons”

[4] Number of residents and naturalized persons – EUROSTAT 2010 data

[5] The book describes projects realized by LHRC on page 90

[6]Интервью с Татьяной Жданок 10.12.2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaMSdJ16Qrg

[7] Эстонский правозащитник завидует русским Латвии 11.12.2012 http://rus.delfi.lv/news/daily/latvia/estonskij-pravozaschitnik-zaviduet-russkim-latvii.d?id=42896902

[8] Правозащитник: русские в Латвии чувствуют воздух неприязни 13.12.2012 http://rus.delfi.lv/news/daily/latvia/pravozaschitnik-russkie-v-latvii-chuvstvuyut-vozduh-nepriyazni.d?id=42901512

[9] Тиски сжимаются... 09.01.2013 http://vesti.lv/world/theme/conflicts/73475-tiski-szhimajutsja-litovskie-vlasti-vedut-shirokoe-nastuplenie-na-prava-nacmenshinstv.html

[10] Лом, завернутый в газетку 09.01.2013 http://vesti.lv/world/theme/conflicts/73467-lom-zavernutyj-v-gazetku.html

[11] За права человека 17.01.2013 http://www.ves.lv/article/235948

[12] DD(2012)350 *Item reference: 1144th DH meeting (June 2012)

Communication from a NGO (FIDH Latvian Human Rights Committee) (09/03/12) in the case

of Andrejeva against Latvia (Application No. 55707/00) and reply of the government. Information made available under Rules 9.2 and 9.3 of the Rules of the Committee of Ministers for the supervision of the execution of judgments and of the terms of friendly settlements: Available at https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?Ref=DH-DD(2012)350&Language=lanEnglish&Site=CM