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Summary: This report extracts mentions of children's rights issues in the reports of the UN Special Procedures. This does not include reports of child specific Special Procedures, such as the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, which are available as separate reports. Scroll to: ---------- Report by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (E/CN.4/2005/6/Add.2) Country visit: 23-28 Februrary 2004 Report published: 1 September 2004 The Working Group identified the following concerns: Pre-trial detention: The Working Group found that in practice, although the Code of Criminal Procedure makes provision for other safety precautions, pre-trial detention is far from an exception. It is often applied, even to minors. (para 58) The practice of holding minors in custody and detaining them at police stations before charges are brought should be reconsidered, and avoided wherever possible. (para 85) In practice, pre-trial detention for minors should be the exception, to be used only as a last resort. Other means should be employed as far as possible. (para 85) Conditions in prison: Most of the minors the Group met in the cells set aside for them in adult prisons (Matisa and Daugavpils) confirmed that they were entitled to only one visit a month, that the investigating official could restrict their contacts with the outside world and that they, too, were subject to solitary confinement for up to 30 days as punishment for breaches of discipline. On the other hand, the Group remarked that minors at Daugavpils prison and in Cesis attend school and undergo compulsory education, and that at Matisa prison some minors take classes and others are receiving vocational training. (para 71) As regards convicted minors, the Working Group could not but remark, on visiting the Cesis Correctional Facility for Boys, that apart from the fact that it has a large school run by competent staff the Centre is like an adult prison. The minors it interviewed at Cesis included youths aged between 14 and 18 who had received heavy sentences, ranging from three to six years in prison, mostly for theft and looting. On visiting the isolation cells (too harsh for minors), the delegation found that there are cells, identical to those used for solitary confinement, under the authority of the police: these are used for holding accused minors in pre-trial detention. Some minors told the Group that they had spent between 30 days and three months in cells at police stations before being committed to prison. (para 72) The young detainees also complained about the harshness of conditions in detention, with restricted family visits (one per month), no opportunity to be visited by friends, and solitary confinement for minor infringements of the rules. On the other hand, they did tell the Group they were pleased to have a school at the Centre, and the chance to learn a trade. (para 73) The regime in detention applied to minors should be adapted to suit their characters and ages. (para 85) Juvenile Justice System: Nearly half the minors interviewed said that at the beginning of the inquiry neither the police nor the procurator offered or provided them with the services of a lawyer; they met their lawyers for the first time once they were in prison; and, in the minors’ opinion, the lawyers had not been helpful. (para 73) The Working Group regrets that the draft code of criminal procedure now being discussed by Parliament does not provide for a juvenile justice system entirely consistent with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Latvia is party. It is disturbed above all that the judges it met explained they have limited discretion when finding a minor guilty. They are quite often constrained to impose heavy custodial sentences on minors because the Code of Criminal Procedure offers no alternatives to detention. It is true that under the current system a minor without means cannot be sentenced to a monetary penalty which his legal representative would have to pay, as often occurs under other systems. Minors in Latvia are tried with adults and can be sentenced to equivalent penalties, though there is a limit of 10 or 15 years in prison, depending on the seriousness of the offence. (para 74) As part of its reform of the Code of Criminal Procedure it should make provision for the introduction of a special justice system for minors and bring its legislation and practice as regards the arrest and detention of minors fully into conformity with articles 37, 39 and 40 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Latvia is party, and other appropriate international standards (para 85) Penal legislation should be amended to apply lighter penalties to minors than to adults, to establish a wider variety of alternatives to deprivation of liberty, and to extend judges’ authority to exercise discretion when finding minors guilty so as to avoid incarcerating minors wherever possible. (para 85) Status of persons detained under the law applicable to foreigners: The delegation saw that in some cases entire families were being detained (only the children were allowed to leave, to go to school). (para 76) ------------------------------------ Report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Racism, Doudou Diène. (A/HRC/7/19/Add.3) Country visit: 20-24 September 2007 Report published: 5 March 2008 Mr. Diène identified the following concerns: Education: Another area of concern in terms of language policy regards the educational reforms introduced in 2004, which introduced bilingual education in minority schools by establishing a minimum share of 60 per cent of courses that need to be taught in Latvian, or bilingually, in public secondary schools. In its concluding observations on Latvia, CERD called for closer dialogue between the Government, schools, parents and pupils in order to ensure that a high quality of education is maintained and that the educational needs of minorities are met. (para 60) The Government should promote a profound process of multiculturalism in Latvian society, based both on the recognition and the respect of the cultural and religious diversity of its different communities, old and recent, and the strengthening of the unity of the nation. Education, in particular the writing and teaching of history, based on this dialectical approach should play a key role in this long-term process. (para 93) The Roma Community: Concerning structural discrimination, Roma representatives brought a number of instances and concrete examples to the Special Rapporteur’s attention. An issue of particular concern is education. According to statistics collected by local NGOs, Roma students have drastically lower educational enrolment and achievement rates than the rest of the population, as well as a higher dropout rate. For example, while 46.4 per cent of ethnic Latvians and 46.5 per cent of ethnic Russians have completed secondary education, this rate is only 7.9 per cent for Roma. Although the Ministry of Education has prioritized Roma education, the Roma community emphasized the difficult material conditions faced by children in attending and performing well in schools, as well as the negative stereotypes they face from both instructors and peers. The poor educational performance of Roma children is seen as the most important challenge for their access to the labour market and subsequent integration into Latvian society. The impact of discrimination and poor education on unemployment among Roma citizens is striking: only 5 per cent of Roma citizens are believed to be employed in long-term jobs. (para 62) The Roma community in Latvia, as in most European countries, lives in particularly vulnerable conditions and suffers from structural discrimination that manifests itself specifically in the realms of education, employment and cultural stereotypes. (…) (para 78) Particular attention should be granted to the vulnerable situation of the Roma community. The Government should reinforce its National Action Plan “Roma in Latvia 2007-2009”, aiming at both promoting and respecting their cultural identity and living cultural expressions and at eradicating the deep cultural stigma affecting the community, their social and economic marginalization, particularly the poor educational attainment of Roma children and the drastically high unemployment rates among Roma citizens. The programme should also have a strong component that focuses on sensitizing society at large to Roma history and traditions, including their fate during the Holocaust, in order to eliminate the negative stigma and stereotypes constantly associated with the Roma. (para 91) Citizenship: (…) The Special Rapporteur is aware that the problem of citizenship in Latvia involves sensitive issues related to the recent historical experience of the country, in particular the need to reaffirm the principle of the legal continuity of the Latvian State and the reinforcing of Latvia’s national identity. However, he highlights the need to revisit this policy as a means to overcome this divisive issue between the Latvian and Russian-speaking communities. In particular, he noted the existence of two especially vulnerable groups of non-citizens - children of non-citizens who were born in Latvia and elderly persons - who could enjoy easier access to citizenship. (para 77) (...) In particular, the Government should consider appropriate measures to tackle the problem of the low level of registration as citizens of children born in Latvia after 21 August 1991 to non-citizen parents. These measures could include granting automatic citizenship at birth, without a requirement of registration by the parents, to those children born to non-citizen parents who do not acquire any other nationality. (…) (para 88) ------------------------------------ UN Special Rapporteur on Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography (A/HRC/12/23/Add.1) Country visit: 25 – 31 October 2008 Report published: 13 July 2009
Please note that the language may have been edited in places for the purpose of clarity
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