Honorable Chairman of the United Nations Forum on Minority Issues! Dear participants of the Forum! I am a chairperson of a non-governmental organization called “Association for Support of Schools with Russian Language of Instruction in Latvia”, which in Latvia is also known by its short abbreviation “LAShOR”. Our goal is to preserve and develop the GENERAL school education in the language of a Russian-speaking linguistic minority in the Republic of Latvia. I understand that the word Russian has become notorious over the last nine months. About that, a little bit later. May I remind the Forum about my country Latvia? It is a Member of the European Union, one of the smallest countries of Europe. It is located on the Baltic seashore and borders on Estonia, Lithuania, Belarus and Russia. The Republic of Latvia is a result of a national selfdetermination of a Latvian ethnic group. Latvian is the only official language. Although an ethnic composition of the population is diverse, the whole of the country falls into two groups – people, who speak Latvian at home 1 (5)