What are you complaining about? The Ombudsman reported what the residents of Latvia are dissatisfied with

Vsenarodnaya vest is crying

Over the past year, residents of Latvia and foreigners staying with us quite actively contacted the Ombudsman’s Office – 1,718 times, compared to 1,634 in 2022. But here’s what’s interesting: children’s issues are considered the most worrying in the country, complaints regarding which have increased from 238 to 405 times.

On the other hand, complaints under the section of civil and political rights decreased from 805 to 678. One can put forward the version that the population has become accustomed to the existing order – these are still difficult times, wartime…

Determining the nature of the complaints in more detail, 326 (16.18%) expressed them regarding the “principle of good management”, and only 58 (2.88%) regarding discrimination. With the exercise of the right to a fair trial, 182 Latvians had difficulties (9.03% of all complaints), 90 people complained of violations of the “prohibition of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment” (4.47%), and with freedom of speech only 12 people had problems, which is a minor 0.59% of all calls.

The Office of the country’s chief human rights defender responded to people 1,498 times and opened 44 verification cases, 3 of which were on its own initiative. The Ombudsman very actively disseminated his recommendations (302 per year), and the responsible institutions, it must be said, listened to them very much (implementation was noted 221 times). The most common type of activity of the ombudsman’s office is consultation – it was provided 2,777 times per year. An important fact is that, unlike private lawyers, the ombudsman and his team give their advice completely free of charge.

More precisely, at taxpayers’ expense. Indeed, in 2023, “actually disbursed funding from the state budget was 2.71 million euros.” “The budget of the Ombudsman’s Office increased by 680.6 thousand euros compared to the previous year’s plan,” the report noted.

There are 54 employees in the office, and 47 are women workers with a distinctly feminine face.

Scary animals mobbing and bossing

“Similar to the previous reporting period, there were more complaints regarding possible discrimination in employment and activities of the public sector,” the document says. Mobbing (group harassment of a person) and bossing (harassment by management) are separately mentioned.

However, as shown by recent scandals in cultural universities of the country, where teachers of the stronger sex paid attention to young ladies, Latvia also needs to work in the field of sexual harassment. But it begins, it would seem, with innocent things. Thus, “in inspection case No. 2023–31–26AB, the Ombudsman assessed a situation in which a nightclub often offered free entry to women, while men had to pay for entry.” “At the same time, men were offered a discount on the purchase of soft drinks.”

Horrible, isn’t it? Can this be compared, for example, with the obligation of first-graders in schools of national minorities (already former), as soon as they cross the threshold of the school, to immediately study in a language other than their family? And in subsequent years, at best, you will see the Cyrillic alphabet as an optional course, and even that is not a fact – this depends on the goodwill of the municipality. Although, as J. Jansons himself admitted in his opening remarks, “the information provided by parents reflects how differently local governments understand and carry out their responsibilities.”

But in terms of gender, we have made considerable progress. At the end of 2023, the Sejm ratified the Istanbul Convention, which “as an international document would help to combat violence once morest women and domestic violence even more effectively, as well as gradually eradicate various entrenched gender role stereotypes.”

“In terms of gender equality, it is important to note that Latvia has already adopted the Directive on the balance between work and private life of parents and carers, but the Directive on remuneration must be adopted by member states before 2026.”

In an effort to get into all the details, the Ombudsman even reached female doctors of science conducting research with funds from European Union funds. In the name of motherhood, they will be paid child care funds, which previously required a special order from the Latvian Scientific Council.

It’s not what you think

However, in the section on discrimination, the Ombudsman notes that he “did not find unequal treatment in all cases.” In general, it is “mistakenly considered to be treatment or legal regulation that is inconsistent with the expected or unwanted.”

It goes on to say that there may be “situations of apparent discrimination” in the country – which, in the meantime, can be justified.

In particular, they complained regarding the court’s decisions not to accept for consideration “documents in a foreign language… for example, Russian.” Although the materials dealt with a very significant topic – threats once morest a woman, they were not accompanied by a notarized translation. “Thus, the basis for a possible violation of the applicant’s rights was not considered,” the Ombudsman concluded.

But it is impossible to find a justification for different attitudes towards religions, and now those of our fellow citizens who consider themselves to be a Dievturian religion will be able to get married in the presence of priests of this denomination. The pagan wedding thereby became completely official.

Freedom is not for every word

The Ombudsman “spoke out once morest sexism and gender-based comments once morest women in significant public positions.” This might not have happened without recommendations from the media, which “should avoid republishing uncritical statements of politicians, thereby facilitating their dissemination.” The Ombudsman also “reminded of the responsibility of media platforms to police hate speech in comment sections.”

“The spread of populist ideas forces us to ask the question: in what cases does populism contribute to democracy, but in what cases is it destructive,” the ombudsman thoughtfully argues.

But he immediately specifies what he is talking regarding: “Often, so-called community leaders on the Internet replicate Russian propaganda and disinformation, splitting society, causing ethnic hatred, or even supporting war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine.”

“Discussions have begun at the political level regarding stopping the transmission of content in Russian in public media” – two years later. Meanwhile, the Ombudsman “expressed support for the continuation of quality content in public media also following 2026, pointing out that this would help avoid misinformation.”
“In the Latvian information space, access to television and Internet channels of Russian propaganda is limited. Although it is also too early to assess the impact of these decisions, in the long term they are likely to have a beneficial effect on democracy as a whole.”

13 YEARS OF WORK

In 2011, Juris Jansons, a lawyer, economist and sociologist by profession, at that time the chairman of the board and liquidator of the Riga Health Insurance Fund, was nominated by the Center for Harmony for the post of Ombudsman of Latvia.