Legal Framework
The official language (valsts valoda, literally state language) in Latvia is Latvian; this status has been explicitly defined since 1988. In 1992, amendments to the 1989 Law on Languages strengthened the position of Latvian. All other languages, except the extinct Livonian language, are defined as foreign languages in Section 5 of the State Language Law of 1999.
Since 1998, the official status of the Latvian language has been written into the Constitution (Article 4); and since 2002, MPs have been asked to promise to strengthen Latvian as the only official language in order to take their seats (Article 18). In the Constitution's chapter on human rights, rights to get answers from authorities in Latvian are specified since 2002 (Article 104). The current State Language Law was not amended since its adoption in 1999.
In 1995, Latvia signed, and in 2005 ratified the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. When ratifying it, the Latvian Saeima (Parliament) made two declarations (worded as reservations) limiting the implementation of Articles 10 and 11. As at 2008, Latvia did not plan to sign the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
Language policy is implemented by a number of institutions: the State Language Commission (under the President) prepares proposals in this field; the State Language Centre (under the Ministry of Justice) executes control, imposes fines for administrative violations and trasnslates documents of international significance, the Latvian Language Agency (under the Ministry of Education and Science) provides consultations and opportunities for learning the Latvian language, analyses the language situation.
Read more about this topic: Language Policy In Latvia
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