Latvia will not withdraw—for now—from Istanbul Convention against violence against women

Brussels – A  week after the go-ahead for the bill to withdraw Latvia from the Istanbul Convention against Violence against Women, the Riga Parliament yields to pressure from the public and Edgars Rinkēvičs, the president, and takes a step back, deciding to postpone the issue until November 2026. The next Saeima elections will be held in October next year, so the new parliament will decide on the matter. 

The intervention of the president, who had yesterday sent the law back to the sender and demanded a revision, was decisive. Indeed, Rinkēvičs himself had suggested freezing the issue until the end of the current legislature. Today, in an extraordinary session, the Foreign Affairs Committee and then Parliament itself approved a deadline of 1 November next year for the submission of proposals to revise the legislation on gender violence, and thus also for the possible withdrawal from the international convention ratified only two years ago. In fact, the issue could be dragged to the centre of the next election campaign, as the elections to renew the Saeima are scheduled for 3 October 2026. 

Premier Evika Siliņa, from the same centre-right party as the president, called Saeima’s decision “a victory for democracy, the rule of law, and women’s rights.” Siliņa also stressed that “Latvia is a reliable partner and ally and remains committed to European values.” The Social Democrats, shareholders in the coalition supporting the government, rejoiced at “a significant victory for society” due to the “massive mobilisation to defend their values and the country’s reputation” that “frightened the supporters of this bill.” 

In fact, Latvia was among the six member states (along with Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, and Slovakia) that kept the EU’s accession to the treaty stalled for years, until October 2023, when thanks to a decision of the Court of Justice, Brussels was able to break the deadlock and proceed to the ratification, effectively forcing all Member States to comply with the provisions of the Convention. A month later, the Latvian Parliament also ratified the treaty, a full seven years after Riga had signed it..