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.

Press Review

Press Review

The cancellation of the Soldiers’ Commemoration Day on the 16th March would create the tension, the majority of the officials interviewed by 

The cancellation of the Soldiers Commemoration Day on the 16th March would create the tension, the majority of the officials interviewed byDiena said. The State President Guntis Ulmanis has already expressed his opinion about this date, namely, that it should not be politicised. Mr. Ulmanis himself has planned to pay working visit to Greece and will not be in Latvia at this day. The Saeima Speaker Janis Straume who also will be outside Latvia that day considers the call to abolish the commemoration day provocative. The Prime Minister Vilis Kristopans will not participate in the commemorative events. The Riga City Council has received the application from the National Soldiers Society with the request to permit a march from the Doma Cathedral to the Freedom Monument without using the Republic of Latvia flags or any other symbols. Diena

Last Friday the Latvian Centre for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies presented the report on Human Rights in Latvia in 1998 published in the Latvian, English and Russian languages. According to this report, the situation in prisons, the leadership crisis in the National Human Rights Office and the formation of new radical group propagandising the racial hatred were major human rights problems in Latvia in 1998. Among the achievements in this sphere, the authors of the report mention the liberalisation of the Citizenship Law, the amendments to the Law on the Status of Former USSR Citizens who are no Citizens of Latvia or Any Other Country, as well as the supplementing of the Constitution with the new chapter on human rights.

Last Friday the Latvian Centre for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies presented the report on Human Rights in Latvia in 1998 published in the Latvian, English and Russian languages. According to this report, the situation in prisons, the leadership crisis in the National Human Rights Office and the formation of new radical group propagandising the racial hatred were major human rights problems in Latvia in 1998. Among the achievements in this sphere, the authors of the report mention the liberalisation of the Citizenship Law, the amendments to the Law on the Status of Former USSR Citizens who are no Citizens of Latvia or Any Other Country, as well as the supplementing of the Constitution with the new chapter on human rights. Diena