15 November 2022 – the date set by the law as the deadline for demolition of Soviet monuments located throughout the territory of Latvia.
The Law in question is entitled as ”On Prohibition of Display of Objects Praising the Soviet and Nazi Regimes and Their Dismantling on the Territory of the Republic of Latvia”. Our Cabinet of Ministers created a list of objects to be demolished. It counted 69 monuments, all of them as the ones ”praising the Soviet regime”.
This law was passed in the first reading by Latvia’s Parliament on May 26th. The Parliament adopted the law already on June 16th. According to the law, demolition of all problematic objects is to be performed by 15 November 2022.
The process of demolition was seen as the duty of municipal administrations responsible for the territories in which monuments and other objects are located. It is planned for the demolition to be financed from the donations provided by private and legal persons, if such donations exist. Remaining funding has to come in equal amounts from the state and municipal budgets.
By November 15, all 69 monuments were destroyed, despite the fact that 8 of them got protection as they received special decisions on the interim measures taken by the UN Human Rights Committee.
The UN Human Rights Committee has asked Latvia to refrain from dismantling the monuments that are the objects of the communications or to ensure the conservation of the pieces of the monuments if they had already been dismantled while the communications are under consideration by the Committee.
The first decision taken by the UN Human Rights Committee referred to the monument in Riga to the Liberators of Riga and Latvia from German fascist occupiers. It was submitted by five people, citizens of Latvia and Lithuania, who are members of the Latvian Front of Workers. That complaint was submitted on August 24th and on August 26th the Foreign Affairs ministry Latvia received the notification of the interim measures taken by the UN with regard to the Monument. The process of the monument demolition had already started by then. Diāna Eglīte, Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs press-secretary, referred in the commentary to the Latvian LETA agency to this timing as a reason why the UN Human Rights Committee decision was not implemented.
However, that decision on interim measures was followed by more communications by the UN Human Rights Committee to Latvia on decisions taken by them with regard to the 7 monuments in Riga, Daugavpils, Rezekne and Liepaja. All communications concerning these monuments were submitted by members of the Latvian Russian Union: Vladimirs Buzajevs and Inna Djeri (Riga), Aleksejs Vasiljevs and Jekaterina Stehnovska–Slavska (Daugavpils), Jelena Osipova (Liepaja), Tatjana Ždanoka, Aleksejs Vasiljevs, Valerijs Petrovs and Vadims Gilis (Rezekne). This time the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs cited that the reason why the UN Human Rights Committee decisions were not implemented is that these decisions are not mandatory and are only advisory in nature.
