LATVIAN BUDGET CRISIS ERODES CAPACITY ON HUMAN

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 RIGA 000545 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM PREL ECON EFIN LG SUBJECT: LATVIAN BUDGET CRISIS ERODES CAPACITY ON HUMAN RIGHTS PRIORITIES REF: RIGA 542 RIGA 00000545 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Human rights institutions are bracing for severe cuts as a result of belt-tightening in Latvia. Institutions intended to increase integration and ensure basic human rights face either steep cuts or sweeping reorganization. Under the proposed budget, the Naturalization Board, responsible for facilitating the acquisition of citizenship for Latvia's non-citizen population, will be merged into the Office on Citizenship and Migration. While this is a logical pairing, there are doubts about the motive for the move, especially since the cost savings will be modest. The already cash-strapped Ombudsman's office will also face acute cuts under the proposed budget. Progress in human rights areas of concern will be increasingly difficult in this environment. End summary. ¶2. (U) On November 5, Saeima (Parlaiment) passed the first reading of its 2010 budget, designed to comply with the dictates of international lenders (see reftel). The new budget imposes across-the-board spending cuts affecting almost every institution of the Latvian Government, including those vital to providing social services and fighting corruption. The human rights institutions involved have smaller budgets and have flown under the radar to some extent, but their drastically reduced budgets will affect their ability to operate. The Naturalization Board -------------- ¶3. (U) Latvia has approximately 340,000 residents, mostly Russian-speaking, who do not hold the citizenship of any country. The Naturalization Board (NB) operates service centers that collect naturalization applications and administer naturalization tests. Meanwhile, the Office of Citizenship and Migration is responsible for tracking immigrants and issuing passports. Facing declining numbers of applications and a first round of budget cuts last year, the NB had already closed seven of its fifteen service centers and reducd staff by more than half. The proposed budget would cut the NB budget again, stripping it of its largely independent status and place it under the OCM, within the Ministry of Interior. ¶4. (SBU) Representatives of the NB complain that the proposed reorganization could eliminate much of the staff familiar with naturalization operations, slowing or even halting the 
naturalization process. Both NB and human rights NGOs express concern about the transfer of naturalization powers from a body intended to encourage naturalization to a body whose operating ethos is one of protecting Latvia against unwanted immigrants. Ilze Brands-Kehris of the Latvian Center on Human Rights notes that Latvia has resisted international calls to give non-citizens greater rights by saying it prefers to encourage them to naturalize - a signal that the current plan would undermine. In defense of the proposal, Ingrida Circene, chair of the Saeima Human Rights Committee and from the right-of-center New Era party, argues that all agencies are facing cuts, and there is no reason to think that a restructured NB can't handle the job. ¶5. (SBU) Circene further argued that because the number of naturalization applications has declined in recent years, the NB is a reasonable place to look for cuts. Furthermore, opponents of naturalization often argue that "everyone who wants to naturalize has already done so." However, as rumors circulated that the NB would close entirely, there was a small rush of applicants - possibly trying to get their applications in before the window closed for good. In the first nine months of 2009 there have been almost as many applications as in all of 2008. This would indicate that there are still some non-citizens that could be persuaded by the right incentive to naturalize. The Ombudsman's Office -------------- ¶6. (SBU) In contrast, the Office of the Ombudsman does not face a restructuring -- rather, it faces a budget that will be less than half what it was in 2008. The Ombudsman's office is charged with investigating and responding to any alleged rights violation by the GOL, and for providing recommendations on how to improve Latvia's institutions from a human rights perspective. The office has been plagued with controversy over the last year, as staff released an open letter decrying the lack of leadership and poor management of Ombudsman Romans Apsitis. The Ombudsman's office has focused on meeting the minimum required standards to reply to each complaint received, and has made only infrequent, and some RIGA 00000545 002.2 OF 002 claim trivial, recommendations for legislation. In meetings with PolOff, Apsitis has declined to discuss management complaints that he considers internal matters, but noted that budget cuts are crippling what limited ability his office had to make bold or proactive recommendations. ¶7. (SBU) Apsitis has lost the faith of both human rights NGOs and of the Saeima. Circene expressed dismay that the clear ineffectiveness of the office and the lack of confidence in Apsitis personally made the Ombudsman an easy target for budget cuts. Brand-Kehris noted broad agreement that Apsitis is ineffective, but noted that poor management doesn't mean the office's function is unnecessary, as gutting its budget implies. Brand-Kehris also noted that equally cash-strapped NGOs would shift emphasis to pick up the slack where the Ombudsman's office failed to advocate for human rights improvements, especially in closed institutions like prisons. ¶8. (SBU) Comment: Latvia needs to slash its budget, and there is no way to avoid painful cuts to some well-intentioned institutions in this process. Independent voices like the Ombudsman and Naturalization Board are proving vulnerable to particularly harsh cuts. These institutions should not be exempt from budgetary scrutiny, but if the current proposed budget passes, Latvia's chances to make progress on human rights issues will be greatly diminished. GARBER