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<text> <title> Estonia, Latvia And Lithuania </title> <article> <hdr> Human Rights Watch World Report 1992 Helsinki Watch: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania </hdr> <body> (This chapter addresses human rights developments in the Baltic states following international and Soviet acceptance of their independence in late August and early September 1991. Events in these states earlier in the year are treated as part of the separate chapter on the Soviet Union.) Human Rights Developments After more than fifty years of rule by the Soviet government, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania gained international recognition as independent, sovereign states in late August 1991. (On August 22, Iceland became the first country to recognize the independence of the Baltic states. Denmark followed on August 24; Argentina and Norway on August 25; Canada, Malta and Czechoslovakia on August 26; and the European Community, on August 27. The United States granted recognition on September 2, the thirty-second country to do so.) The Kremlin followed suit on September 6. All three new nations were admitted to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) and participated in the Moscow CSCE conference in September. In October, they were admitted to the United Nations, and later that month they became associate members of NATO. The Baltic states quickly made their presence felt on the international human rights scene. For example, Lithuania expressed its interest in ratifying the U.N. Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Estonia acceded in December to the optional protocol of that covenant, thereby allowing reporting of individual violations to the U.N. Human Rights Committee. In May 1990, before international recognition of its independent status, the Latvian government acceded to some 50 international treaties, including those on human rights. An important human rights issue in all three Baltic states is the status of national minorities who were Soviet citizens when the Soviet Union was a single political entity. Many of these minorities may have to fulfill new naturalization requirements to become citizens of the states in which they reside. Proposed new citizenship laws became the focus of intense debate. These questions reached a head in fall of 1991 when all three Baltic states issued new laws or official guidelines on citizenship. The laws and principles on citizenship in the three Baltic states share certain features. They grant citizenship automatically to those who were citizens or residents of their respective states at the time of Soviet occupation--1940--and to their direct descendants. These laws and principles also establish certain residency and language requirements for naturalization, define criteria for ineligibility, and--with the exception of Latvia which changed its law on November 27 forbid dual citizenship. The ban on dual citizenship has met a hostile reception from emigres who would like to return or take up citizenship in one of the Baltic states but do not want to give up their adopted citizenship in other countries. Lithuania was the first to produce a law on citizenship, promulgating it in November 1989. (Subsequently, Lithuania issued a new citizenship law on December 10, 1991; at this writing Helsinki Watch has only obtained oral translations of some portions of its text by the Lithuanian Embassy.) The 1989 law automatically extends citizenship to those who can prove they were permanent residents, and were legally employed, in Lithuania for at least ten years before the law entered into force. Those who could meet this requirement, were given two years--until November 1991--to opt for Lithuanian citizenship. The new law ends this "grace period" for selecting citizenship for those who do not meet the ten-year residency/employment requirement. Other naturalization conditions state that individuals may be naturalized in the future if they have been permanent residents in Lithuania for ten years with legal employment or a source of legal support, know the Lithuanian language, and know the basic provisions of the Lithuanian Constitution. (The law thus distinguishes between two groups of people: those who had settled in Lithuania ten years before it became a sovereign state, and those who migrated to Lithuania more recently or after the law's adoption. (The preliminary information that Helsinki Watch has obtained on the 1991 Lithuanian citizenship law did not shed light on the key issue of the rights of permanent resident aliens.) Two provisions in the Lithuanian law violate international human rights standards. Under its provisions on naturalization, citizenship would be denied to recent migrants who, among other things, have been sentenced to imprisonment for "a serious, deliberate crime" or who are alcoholics and drug addicts. Denying citizenship to persons whose criminal conviction took place before the law's adoption adds an additional, ex post facto penalty to their punishment, a condition forbidden by international standards set forth in Article 15 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Excluding from naturalization permanent residents who are alcoholics and drug addicts is particularly pernicious because it would likely discourage them from seeking needed treatment. (These conditions still seem to stand in the 1991 Lithuanian citizenship law.) On October 15, the Latvian Supreme Council (parliament) issued a conceptual framework to guide future legislation on citizenship in Latvia. This legal framework has been attacked by Latvian emigres, who eventually managed to reverse its initial ban on dual citizenship; by the Latvian radical right, who claim that the present Supreme Council lacks the needed legal authority to issue it; and by groups representing various segments of the non-Latvian half of the population. It is likely that these questions will be the subject of many more debates before the new Latvian citizenship law achieves its final shape. The framework first affirms the validity of the 1919 Latvian citizenship law, in effect in pre-Soviet Latvia. The framework also states that many Soviet citizens settled in Latvia as a result of the long and illegal Soviet annexation of the republic. It points out that one purpose of this law is to "liquidate the consequences of the Soviet Union's occupation and annexation of Latvia" and renew the legal rights of citizens of the Republic of Latvia. Therefore, it revokes the 1940 Soviet law on citizenship for Latvia. The Latvian government's desire to try to put right the wrongs of Soviet rule are understandable. Even so, some of the categories of those ruled ineligible for Latvian citizenship are overly broad: those convicted for attempting to undermine or overthrow by unconstitutional methods the independent and democratic Latvian republic, its parliamentary system or its government; those serving in the ranks of the Soviet military, MVD or KGB forces and those who settled in Latvia after 1940 upon retirement from these forces; common criminals and those convicted of crimes against humanity; those convicted of disseminating chauvinist, fascist, communist or totalitarian ideologies; those sent to Latvia after June 17, 1940, as Communist Party and Komsomol officials; and registered alcoholics, addicts and those without a legal source of income. The legal framework states that those who were citizens or legal residents of Latvia before 1940 and their descendants must register for a Latvian passport by July 1, 1992. In general, anyone living in Latvia and wanting to become a citizen can expect to be naturalized if he or she submits an application by July 1, 1992. Such applicants must show: knowledge of spoken Latvian; proof that he or she is no longer a citizen of another country; proof of a minimum of sixteen years' residency in Latvia; acquaintance with the Latvian Constitution; and