Latvia’s parliament decided on Thursday to leave the Istanbul Convention – a treaty aimed at preventing violence against women and domestic violence – which it ratified in November 2023.
“We could understand if there was some specific piece of legislation or something that happened that would catalyse this, but there was nothing,” said Beata Jonite, advocacy expert at the MARTA Centre that works with women victims of domestic violence.
“It's just populism,” she said, adding that they saw it in the light of the upcoming parliamentary elections next year.
The withdrawal was put forward by the opposition right-wing Latvia First party last month. Its leader is the controversial Latvian oligarch Ainārs Šlesers with business ties to Russian oligarchs in the Kremlin’s inner circle, according to the country’s public broadcaster LSM.
Business linked indirectly with Šlesers also continues working in Russia, the investigative Latvian news website Re:Baltic reported last year.
The motion passed its first reading in the parliament after gathering support from MPs in the ruling coalition, and was approved by the foreign affairs committee on Wednesday.
The final reading was passed in the parliament on Thursday after debates lasting some 13 hours.
“The liberal camp tends to divert attention from the fact that the Istanbul Convention provides for the introduction of social gender. Anyone who opposes the convention is labelled a Putinist,” MP Ramona Petraviča from the Latvia First previously told lawmakers.
Another MP from the same party, Linda Liepina, said she saw “a foreign ideology creeping into our everyday lives”.
The Council of Europe previously dismissed these claims, saying in 2022 that “the Istanbul Convention does not set new standards on gender identity and sexual orientation”.
Over 22,000 people in Latvia signed a petition calling on the parliament to abort the move, saying that being part of the convention “increased international trust in Latvia, and strengthened our reputation as a country that respects human rights and protects its citizens”.
Over a dozen European countries also sent a letter to Latvian lawmakers before the vote, asking them to reconsider.
“The ratification of the Istanbul Convention in Latvia has yielded significant results, which are not just words on paper, but lives that are saved,” the MARTA Centre said in a press release on September 24.
According to the centre, Latvia strengthened laws protecting women from violence because of the convention, saying that the adopted measures “save people's lives on a daily basis”.
However, politicians calling for withdrawal say national laws could be tightened without the Istanbul Convention. Human rights advocates argue, however, that national laws are insufficient.
“They mainly focus on consequences, which we already have in our criminal code, but we have to work on the root causes,” said Jonite from the MARTA Centre.
For example, Latvia was able to criminalise sexual harassment thanks to the convention, despite the bill previously failing to pass for years. “Because I could then say in the parliament that Article 40 of the Istanbul Convention pushes us to criminalise sexual harassment,” Jonite said.
“Many things we have lobbied for years, they managed to move through after ratification,” she said. “The convention is not a magic wand, but it’s definitely something that helps move the process forward.”
Gender is included in the convention to fight stereotypes and counter preconceived ideas about women’s roles in society, for example. However, this does not mean “everyone in kindergartens will start changing their genders” as claimed by opponents, she added.
“The debate is very similar in Hungary and Lithuania, that still have not ratified the convention,” she said, adding that the same “bogus claims” were being made in Latvia when calling for the country’s withdrawal.
Lithuanian MP Vytautas Sinica from the far-right National Alliance echoed these genderism claims, insisting the convention gave countries the option to enforce different concepts of gender down the line.
“Maybe in Latvia [gender questions] were viewed sceptically and no one enforced these norms, but, looking from a conservative perspective, the potential exists,” he said.
Sending a wrong message?
Latvia’s withdrawal might send a message that the region is heading in the direction of Hungary, according to Jūratė Juškaitė, director of the Lithuanian Centre for Human Rights.
“This raises questions about human rights standards in our region, as well as the decrease of democracy, and whether the region is not becoming Hungary,” she said.
The question of the Istanbul Convention has been stuck in Lithuania for years, she said, and Latvia could set a negative example.
“The main argument of the opponents is that the Istanbul Convention did not change anything in Latvia, but at the same time, it’s scary genderism. The arguments are contradictory and there is no content in them, this is just a political message that the parties are using to remind people about themselves before the elections,” Juškaitė said.
Similarly, Turkey ratified but then exited the convention in 2021, saying it would replace it with domestic laws.
According to Jonite, Turkey then saw a decrease in reporting on domestic violence.
“It’s also our fear here in Latvia that if we denounce the convention, it will destroy people’s faith in the system”, leading to a rise in unreported domestic violence cases, she said.
Several protests were also held in the country’s capital, Riga, with the biggest one on Wednesday evening attracting 5,000 people, according to the police.
“Latvian parliamentarians risk sending the message to women victims of violence that their rights and needs are not taken seriously,” Theodoros Rousopoulos, president of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), said in a statement on October 23, calling on Latvia to abandon the vote.
Speaking to the media earlier this week, Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs also said the proposal reflected an early “election campaign” as the country gears up for parliamentary elections next year.
He now has 10 days to decide whether he will sign the bill into law.
‘See no obstacles’
Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė told reporters on Thursday that she saw no “obstacles or problems as to why Lithuania should not ratify the Istanbul Convention”.
However, previous attempts in Lithuania to ratify the convention drew thousands of protesters into the streets in 2021.
“It is no secret that in Lithuania such issues of values cause quite a lot of discussion,” she said while on a visit to Riga, adding that the ratification “related to our international commitments and to how we are perceived in the international arena”.
“I truly hope that the day will come when we will all be able to agree unanimously that certain value-based issues should simply be decided and left behind,” Ruginienė said.
Estonia ratified the convention in 2017.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
