Integration monitor is a daily Latvian press digest on ethnic minority and society integration issues. The Monitor reviews the biggest Latvian dailies: Diena, Latvijas Avize, Neatkariga (in Latvian language), Vesti Segodnya (in Russian language). In specific cases other information sources are used. Latvian Centre for Human Rights is not responsible for information published by the media.

• Saeima’s Legal Committee refused a proposal of the nationalists’ union to return a notion “state nation” in to the draft Introduction to the Constitution of Latvia
• Congress of Non-Citizens announced that the U.S. Embassy supports its democratic initiatives

The Saeima’s Legal Committee refused a proposal of the nationalists’ union All for Latvia!/FF-LNIM to return a notion “state nation” in to the draft Introduction to the Constitution of Latvia. As reported, the first draft of the Introduction or Preamble to the Constitution contained the notion “state nation” which referred to ethnic Latvians, but later, following critical reaction from experts and representatives of ethnic minorities the notion was removed from the text. The author of the Introduction Egils Levits also called to use actively the notion “state nation” not in the text of the Introduction but in public life.

According to the Congress of Non-Citizens, it has received a letter from the U.S. Ambassador to Latvia Mark Pekala in which the U.S. Embassy expresses its support to the democratic initiatives of the Congress. Representative of the Embassy in an interview with Latvijas Avize explained that the letter was a reply on an appeal from the Congress of Non-Citizens. Representatives of the Embassy also have met with representatives of the Congress several times and will continue such meetings in future. The U.S. Embassy stressed that it conducts meetings with representatives of civil society in Latvia on a regular basis because an open dialogue is very important component of a democratic process in free and open society.