The Latvian parliament voted on Oct. 30 to leave an international treaty aimed at reducing violence against women, with opponents to the convention saying it does not work and promotes gender ideology.
According to the Saeima, Latvia's unicameral parliament, lawmakers
supported the final reading of the Baltic country's
withdrawal from the Council of Europe's Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, often referred to as the Istanbul Convention.
The withdrawal measure, put forward by the opposition, was passed by a vote of 55–33, with three abstentions, according to the Saeima's transcripts.
One of the government's three coalition parties—the Greens and Farmers Union—had broken with Prime Minister Evika Silina's position and joined the opposition to support the measure.
Siliņa supports the convention,
having stated earlier this month that her government did not support a withdrawal and that its ratification is the "right step" for Latvia.
The motion is expected to be reviewed and signed by Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics, who
wrote on X on Oct. 31 that he would assess the measure, "taking into account state and legal, rather than ideological or political, considerations."
The Istanbul Convention requires Council of Europe members to establish legal standards "to ensure women’s right to be free from violence," the council
says. To date, 39 nations have ratified the convention, with Turkey becoming the first country to leave it in 2021.
A 'Step Backward'
The Istanbul Convention came into force in Latvia on May 1, 2024. Supporters of the convention say it protects women, with opponents arguing it introduces a definition of gender that goes beyond scientific biological sex and that existing laws are sufficient to address violence against women.
"This will not influence domestic violence in any way. Protections against domestic violence were in Latvian law even before the Istanbul Convention," Gunars Gutris, a lawmaker from the Greens and Farmers Union party, said.
"This will be a devastating blow to Latvia's standing in the European Union, as well as internationally," Andris Suvajevs, chairman of the parliamentary group of Progressives, the liberal government coalition party, said.
On Sept. 25, members of the opposition in the Seima
submitted a draft law to withdraw Latvia from the Istanbul Convention.
During the debate, lawmaker Agnese Krasta of the New Unity party said that leaving the convention would be a "step backward."
Krasta said the convention "is not just a piece of paper, it is our promise to protect victims, a promise that we will not remain silent when someone raises their hand against us, that we will not turn away when someone suffers."
Ideological 'Trojan Horse'
Maija Armaneva of the Latvia First party called the convention an ideological Trojan horse.She said that while violence must be combated, it must be tackled with domestic legislation, "not with foreign ideologies."
"This Trojan horse contains a concept of social gender, which does not correspond to our Latvian culture or our upbringing traditions," Armaneva said.
"Our children need security and clarity, not confusion and artificially created gender or, even worse, genderlessness."
The Latvia First lawmaker's arguments echo those of other politicians in Eastern Europe who, in recent years, have
opposed the convention for allegedly redefining gender not as a matter of biological sex but as a social construct—a point they emphasized by citing the document’s use of the word “gender.”
Before the change in government in Poland, Warsaw
sought to withdraw from the convention, on similar grounds that it considered elements of the document to be of an "ideological nature, which we consider harmful.”
In 2020, the Polish Ministry of Justice
wanted to terminate the convention because of what it called “harmful ideological solutions” such as the “concept of the so-called gender in opposition to biological sex.”
Last year, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk's cabinet, which assumed office in 2023, canceled plans to pull out.
According to the definitions outlined in the Council of Europe's convention, "'gender' shall mean the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for women and men."
The Council of Europe has denied that the treaty pushes gender ideology and stated in a 2023
document that "the Istanbul Convention does not set new standards in relation to gender identity and sexual orientation."
“Difficulties around the translation of the term ‘gender’ and its distinction from the term ‘sex’ in languages which do not have an exact equivalent have sometimes been used to fuel controversies about the convention and its implications," the Council
said.
Reuters contributed to this report.
