The information contained on this page represents the situation as of 1 January 2011 and is a summary of the country report produced by the country expert from the network. The summary can be downloaded here as well.

Contact: 
Anhelita Kamenska
E-mail: angel@humanrights.org.lv

Latvia is, and always has been, a multi-ethnic country, although the proportion of the different ethnic groups among its population has varied. Ethnic origin is recorded in the Population Register. It is based on the ethnicity of either of a person’s parents and can be changed upon reaching the age of majority by choosing the ethnicity of any grandparents; the entry of ethnicity in passports is optional. By 1 July 2011, out of 2 224 230 people registered in the Population Register of Latvia, the ethnic composition was as follows: 59% Latvian; 27% Russian; 3.5% Belarusian; 2.4% Ukrainian; 2.3% Polish; 1.3% Lithuanian; 0.43 Jewish; 0.1% Estonian; the others including 0.38% Roma.

The Labour Law, the Law on Social Security, Law on the support to unemployed persons and job seekersand the Law on Consumer Protection contain definitions of direct and indirect discrimination and harassment which were drafted based on those in the directives and comply with them; they also prohibit instruction to discriminate.

There are a number of legal avenues for addressing cases of discrimination:

• Courts of general jurisdiction; so far only a handful of cases alleging discrimination have been decided by the courts. 
• Constitutional Court; legislation which is allegedly discriminatory on the grounds of age has twice been challenged in it. In one of the cases, the age restriction for university teachers and higher administrative positions in scientific institutions was invalidated, while in the second case the age restriction for remaining in the civil service was allowed to stand.
• Possibility of submitting a complaint to the same public institution that has treated the person differently or to a higher institution.
• State Labour Inspectorate if discrimination has occurred within the framework of a labour relationship; the inspectorate can impose a fine. However, no complaints about discrimination have been received by the Inspectorate so far.
• Ombudsman’s Office, which is empowered to strive for amicable settlement; it can file a complaint in an administrative court if it is in the public interest, or bring a case to the civil court if the issue is violation of equal treatment.