Latvian Human Rights Committee (LHRC) in 2025
(details in the 2025 archive section in Russian)

Since 1992, the LHRC has been providing legal consultations to the public at 87 Lāčplēša Street, 2nd floor, Riga. Advance registration by phone: 26478282.

The LHRC notes that since 1991, Latvia has practised mass statelessness of national minorities and discrimination against their representatives among citizens. Over 30 years of independence, the Russian-speaking community has shrunk by 45%, while the overall population has decreased by 29% and the number of ethnic Latvians by 14%.

The situation has deteriorated significantly since 2022, in particular:

• a ban on education in Russian;

• the displacement of the Russian language from the service sector and the media;

• the demolition of monuments and the renaming of streets;

• interference in the affairs of the Orthodox Church;

• threats of collective deportation of Russian citizens;

• incitement of hatred towards non-ethnic Latvians;

• mass criminal and administrative persecution of dissidents.

The LHRC publishes documents describing the situation on its website. Updates for May–June 2025 are published on the UN HRC website.

International recommendations regarding Latvia for the period from 2018 to 2025, provided by UN, OSCE and Council of Europe structures, have been summarised. All 23 documents from 18 institutions clearly indicate that the situation of national minorities does not comply with international standards.

The list of persons subjected to criminal prosecution for disagreeing with the policies of the authorities contains information on 6 residents of Lithuania, 27 of Latvia, and 18 of Estonia. At the time of compiling the list (18 November), 15 persons were in prison and one had died in custody.

The LHRC supports six complaints that are fully ready for decision by the UN Human Rights Committee concerning the demolition of monuments and the exclusion of the Russian language from education.

Six complaints filed by the LHRC are awaiting consideration by the ECtHR, including four filed in 2025. Pairs of complaints among these six concern:

• the detention of anti-fascists by the police on 16 March 2017;

• the ban on LRU party deputies holding rallies in defence of Soviet monuments in 2022;

• fines for posting a photo of the Victory Banner and a war veteran in Soviet military uniform on social media.