Latvia might grow to be the primary EU nation to withdraw from a landmark worldwide treaty to fight home abuse and violence towards ladies following a parliamentary vote Thursday.
Lawmakers voted by a margin of 56 to 32, with two abstentions, to withdraw from the Istanbul Conference — a Council of Europe treaty supposed to standardize help for ladies who’re victims of violence — only a 12 months after it got here into pressure.
“It’s a shameful determination for the parliament,” Andris Šuvajevs, parliamentary group chief for the center-left Progressive Occasion, instructed POLITICO shortly after the vote, which occurred after an intense 14-hour debate.
The laws to withdraw from the treaty was launched by a right-wing opposition occasion, Latvia First, however handed with help from one of many three events within the ruling coalition. The centrist Union of Greens and Farmers diverged from the occasion of Prime Minister Evika Siliņa to assist push the invoice by.
Ingūna Millere, a consultant of Latvia First, instructed POLITICO in a written remark that the Istanbul Conference was a “product of radical feminism based mostly on the ideology of ‘gender’” and that Latvia’s ratification of the treaty was “political advertising and marketing that has nothing to do with the struggle towards violence.”
The push to withdraw from the conference has been sharply criticized by human rights teams, which warned that it will roll again ladies’s rights in Latvia. A day earlier than the vote, round 5,000 individuals demonstrated exterior the parliament, carrying indicators studying “Arms off the Istanbul Conference” and “Latvia isn’t Russia.”
Tamar Dekanosidze, the Eurasia regional consultant for ladies’s rights NGO Equality Now, stated the invoice tried to reframe gender equality initiatives as pushing an “LGBTQ agenda,” adopting a Kremlin-style narrative that permits politicians to painting themselves as defenders of “nationwide values” forward of elections.
“This may imply that, by way of values, authorized methods and governance, Latvia could be extra aligned with Russia than with the European Union and Western international locations,” she stated, including that this “immediately serves Russia’s pursuits within the nation.”
Latvia’s withdrawal would require the help of President Edgars Rinkēvičs, who stated earlier than the vote that he would overview the legislation and announce his determination inside 10 days. Latvia could be solely the second nation to give up the conference following Turkey’s exit in 2021.