Name: Leonid Raihman
Citizenship: Latvian
Nationality: Jewish
Date of Birth: 12 May 1959
Contact information:
E-mail: raihman@hotmail.com, raihman@policy.hu
Education:
(i) Latvian State University, Law Department, LLB (5-year program) (1989);
(ii) Riga Polytechnical Institute, Diploma in Engineering (5-yr program) (1981);
(iii) Russian-Baltic Institute, Journalism (took courses for three semesters, 1994-95).
Employment:
Parliamentary assistant, party faction "For Human Rights and Integrated
Latvia" at the Latvian Parliament, February 1999 –
October 2002;
Consultant: Institute of Legal Research, Riga, 1998-2001.
Legal adviser: "Mono" LTD – a private commercial company, 1993 –1997.
Legal adviser: "Ausek" LTD - a private law firm, 1989 – 1993.
Consultancies and Other Experience:
*Fellow, International Policy Fellowship Program of the Open Society
Institute, Project title: "Languages, Media Legislation,
and the Integration of Minorities: Lessons for Latvia", Budapest, March
2002 – March 2003. Research of legislation,
case-law, and policies on electronic media in different countries.
*Consultant in the project "Minority Rights Information System", European
Academy of Bozen/Bolzano, Italy, January -
September 2002.
*Assisted in the project "Database of Minority-Related National Legislation
in Post-Communist States of Central and Eastern
Europe" implemented by MINELRES, a Latvia-based electronic information
service, 2001- continues.
* Provided legal counsel on a strategic case of litigation challenging
language restrictions in the Radio and Television Law in
Latvian domestic courts, 2001-2002.
*Served as legal adviser (since 1994) and Co-chair (1995-2001) of the
Latvian Human Rights Committee, a national human
rights non-governmental organization.
*Worked as pro bono lawyer, half a day per week, for the Latvian Human
Rights Committee, providing legal advice on
human rights, focusing mainly on citizenship, migration, and social
rights issues, October 1994 - March 1997; January 1998
–November 2001.
*In the framework of the Latvian Human Rights Committee, directed the following projects:
(i) Projects "Public Information Service on Naturalization", dealing
with the problem of citizenship for persons of non-Latvian
ethnicity, 2000 and 2001.
(ii) Project "Legal Information Service on Migration Issues", supported by the European Commission, 2001.
(iii) Seminar for journalists on "International and Regional Standards
in the Field of Minority Rights", funded by the Council of
Europe, Riga, April 2000.
(iv) Radio broadcasts "Saprast", funded by the Freedom House, 1999-2000.
(v) TV Program "Saprast" - Confidence-building Measures, 26 series, funded by the Council of Europe), 1998.
*Participated in the Latvian team of the EU Accession Monitoring Program of the Open Society Institute, 2000-2001.
* Member of the steering committee, Central and Eastern European NGO
forum towards the World Conference Against
Racism, Warsaw, September 2000 – August 2001.
*Founder and consultant of the Daugavpils Human Rights Information Center, Latvia, 1998 -.
Publications (selection):
*Contribution to collection "Minority-Language Related Broadcasting
in the OSCE", Program in Comparative Media and
Policy (PCMLP) at Oxford University (forthcoming in March-April 2003).
*Report on the implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection
of National Minorities in the Republic of
Latvia (with T.Bogushevich, A. Dimitrov, J.Dubrovsky, and B. Kolchanov),
Latvian Human Rights Committee, Riga, 2002.
* Article on the Latvian National Radio and Television Council, drawing
comparisons with counterpart institutions in CEE
states: "Pozadi Evropy vsej" ("Lagging Behind Europe"), in "Panorama
Latvii", May 27, 2002.
* Article on language restrictions in the Latvian Radio and Television
Law "Kazhdomu svoje televidenie?" ("To Everyone –
Their Own TV?"); in "Vesti segodnja" (in Russian); and "Jauna avize"
(in Latvian), February 1, 2002.
*Guide "How to Apply for Social Welfare", publication of the Latvian
Human Rights Committee, in Latvian and Russian,
supported by the Baltic-American Partnership Program, 2001.
*"International and Regional Standards in the Field of Minority Rights",
publication of the Latvian Human Rights Committee, in
Latvian and Russian, 2000.
*"National Minorities in Latvia and Human Rights" (with V. Buzayev,
G. Kotov and T. Zhdanok), Latvian Human Rights
Committee, Riga, 1999.
*"Legal and Social Conditions for Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Central
and Eastern European Countries: the Latvian
case", Danish Refugee Council, Copenhagen, 1999.
*Numerous other publications on human rights, political and legal issues in the Latvian press, mainly in Russian.
Participation in Training Programs and Conferences (selection):
*Conference "Electronic mass media and social integration", Riga, November 2002.
*Conference "Media Law, Media Freedom and Media Policy in CEE in View of EU Accession", Florence, May 2002.
*Policy Discussion on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, Budapest, April 2002.
* OSCE Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting "Human Rights: Advocacy and Defenders", Vienna, October 2001.
*Training seminar on the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for
the Protection of National Minorities, Strasbourg,
November-December 2000.
*UNITAR Training program to enhance the conflict resolution and peace-building
capacities of minority and indigenous
people’s representatives, Geneva, August 2000.
*Human Rights Law and Practice Program, Institute of European Law, a
three-months training, Birmingham,
September-November 1999.
*33rd Congress of the Federation Internationale des droits des hommes, Dakar, Senegal, December 1997.
*Regional training seminar on migration and refugees issues, Moscow, November 1996.
*Conference "Regulating Civil Society", organized by the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, Budapest, May 1996.
*Human Rights Course, organized by the Danish Center for Human Rights, Copenhagen, January – February 1996.
*16th Annual International Human Rights Training Program of the Canadian
Human Rights Foundation, Montreal, June-July
1995.
Languages:
Native Russian; fluent Latvian and English.