The UN Human Rights Committee reports having asked Latvia to stop the demolition of the Monument to the Liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga from the German Fascist Invaders. However, the request came after the monument was already demolished, as LETA was told by Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs press-secretary Diāna Eglīte.
She said in the evening on 26 August the ministry received a five-person complaint submitted to UN Human Rights Committee on 24 August regarding Latvia’s possible violations of the UN International Pact on Civil and Political Rights.
Authors of those complaints believe the violation consists of the demolition of Monument to the Liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga from the German Fascist Invaders.
Authors of the complaint asked the committee to establish temporary protection measures – halt the monument’s demolition and preserve the remains of already demolished parts of the monument.
On 26 August the UN committee invited Latvia’s government to halt the monument’s demolition and preserve the already demolished parts.
Eglīte stressed that because the committee made its decision and informed Latvia of it after the monument was already demolished, the decision can no longer be implemented.
The committee also asked Latvia’s government to provide an opinion regarding the complaint and admissibility for review, which will be done normally.
Eglīte explained the committee is an independent expert institution that has the right to review complaints from people regarding possible pact violations by countries that recognise the competence of this committee.
Latvia ratified the supplementary protocol in 1994, giving the right to this committee to review complaints in which Latvia is a defendant.
US Human Rights Committee is authorised to establish temporary protective measures if it is necessary to ensure implementation of requests detailed in people’s complaints if the outcome of their review is beneficial to the people who submitted the complaints.
At the same time, implementation of temporary protective measures does not mean the complaint is accepted for review or if the committee concluded there was a violation of the pact.
The ministry’s press-secretary stressed the committee is no court of law and its opinions are not legally binding to the country in relation to which they are made.
Latvia as a member state of the pact must take these opinions into account and prevent the problems detailed in those opinions in good faith.
The final element of the Monument to the Liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga from the German Fascist Invaders – the 79 m-tall obelisk – was toppled at approximately 16.42 p.m. (local time) in Riga on the 25 August.
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