A new kind of citizenship accepted by EU? Latvian non-citizens and the citizenship debates

On May 13th, 2011 the UN Human Rights Council published its national report about Human rights situation in Latvia. In this report, the members of the Council noted their concern about the very existence of the status of non-citizens (UN Human Rights Council, 2011: 11) as well as in particular mentioned two “particularly vulnerable groups (ibid.): elderly persons and the children born to non-citizens”. Furthermore, it expressed its hope that non-citizens will be granted voting rights in local elections stating that this would be appropriate considering the strong ties to Latvia these persons hold. In a similar manner, Knut Vollebaek, OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, during a visit in February 2011 “urged Latvia to allow non-citizens to vote in municipal elections” (Petrova, 2011) and recommended other changes in non-citizenship law. This work examines the legal status of Latvian non-citizens in the light of citizenship debates and this legal status is by no means an outdated research subject as some would argue. In fact- as showed by the two examples above- it is currently discussed in international organizations. Although the legal status of non-citizens has now existed for more than 15 years and a lot of scholars already discussed it in various aspects (e.g. statelessness, obstacle to integration, social consequences of being a non-citizen), it is still relevant today and seems not yet covered adequately by academic science.