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‘Egregious discrimination’: Diplomat lashes out at Latvia’s amended education law

Maria Zakharova said that the nationalists that are governing Latvia ignore their international commitments

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova Russian Foreign Ministry Press Office/TASS

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova

© Russian Foreign Ministry Press Office/TASS

MOSCOW, October 7. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Friday said the decision by the Latvian parliament that orders a transition to education in the national language is discriminatory, even though the country signed international legal agreements.

The diplomat said Latvia’s Saeima recently amended the law on education to order preschool and school education to switch only to the Latvian language, from September 1, 2023 and September 2025, respectively.

"Now Russian-speaking children in Latvia - and that’s no less than a quarter of the total number of students - are completely deprived of the opportunity to receive an education in their native language," Zakharova said in a statement. "That egregious discrimination is happening despite the fact that the Baltic country is a signatory to fundamental international legal treaties: The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 1950, the UNESCO Convention for the Suppression of Discrimination in Education of 1960, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination of 1965, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966, the Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989, and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities of the Council of Europe of 1995."

The diplomat said that the nationalists that are governing Latvia ignore their international commitments, which is certain to cause a further split in Latvia’s multicultural and multilingual society.

Zakharova said that Russia will continue to draw the attention of relevant international organizations to the intolerable situation in Latvia and other states that claim to be exemplary as far as compliance with human rights norms and standards is concerned.

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Foreign policy Latvia Maria Zakharova

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