Challenge to Women's Rights in Latvia

In October 2025 the Latvian parliament held a shock vote to withdraw from a key international treaty for women’s rights, the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, also known as the Istanbul Convention after the city where it was launched in 2011.

The vote was promulgated by conservative parties, on the grounds that the Treaty is ineffective (which it might well be) and erodes family values and the idea of there being two sexes, men and women.

Latvia has the highest rates of femicide in the European Union and the lowest rates of reporting of sexual and physical violence against women. Women's and democracy activists demonstrated in protest at the vote, and President Edgars Rinkēvičs, who is gay, exercised his constitutional right to veto its passage, requesting the Parliament to reconsider. The next Parliament could make the decision on it after the autumn 2026 election, which is likely to be polarised around this issue.

The Istanbul Convention is the first European treaty dedicated to combating violence against women and domestic violence.

It arose from the Council of Europe – a transnational body with membership from 46 European states, including Russia and Belarus, founded in 1949. The Council focuses on promoting democracy and originated the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The European Union adopted the Convention in 2023 and requires its Member States to adopt it too. Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Lithuania have yet to ratify the convention.

In 2021 Türkiye became the first signatory to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention. Latvia would be only the second if the parliament's decision is upheld.