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.

• Ombudsman Juris Jansons will present the Annual Report of the Ombudsman’s Office 2013 in Saeima
• 375 persons received Latvian citizenship through naturalisation process during first five months of 2014

Latvijas Avize reports that the Ombudsman Juris Jansons will present the Annual Report of the Ombudsman’s Office 2013 in Saeima this week. According to the newspaper, in 2013, the Ombudsman paid attention to free-of-charge education for children and availability of curriculum; to the problems in health care for children; to deficiencies in state funded social care centre; to rights of prisoners; etc. The newspaper highlights the monitoring of bilingual education as one of the most significant tasks done by the Ombudsman in 2013. As reported, following the results of the monitoring, the Ombudsman concluded that education in minority schools should be transferred into Latvian language. The monitoring received critical remarks from experts, some politicians and NGOs.

According to Vesti Segodnya, only 375 persons received Latvian citizenship through naturalisation process during first five months of 2014 and most likely, there will be less than 1,000 naturalised citizens in 2014. Comparing to 2013, there were 1,732 naturalised citizens. One of the leaders of the political party Union of Russians in Latvia Jakovs Pliners says that such data indicate that the naturalisation process has almost completely stopped. At the same time, the number of non-citizens in Latvia decreases for about 14,000 persons every year. The main reasons are death of non-citizens and acceptance of citizenship of other countries.