Latvian MPs have voted to withdraw from an international accord aimed at protecting women from violence, including domestic abuse, after a long and intense debate in parliament.Several thousand people protested against the vote this week in Riga. It is now up to President Edgars Rinkevics to decide whether to approve the law or not.Known as the Istanbul Convention, the 2011 treaty only came into force in Latvia last year, requiring governments to develop laws and support services to end all violence.Latvia is the first EU country to move towards pulling out of the treaty. Turkey withdrew in 2021, a move described as a huge setback by top human rights body the Council of Europe.It is a setback for centre-right Prime Minister Evika Silina, who joined protesters outside parliament earlier this week. “We will not give up, we will fight so that violence does not win,” she told them.The treaty was ratified by the EU in 2023, however ultra-conservative groups have argued that the accord’s focus on gender equality undermines family values and promotes “gender ideology”.After a 13-hour debate in the Saeima, Latvian MPs voted by 56 to 32 to withdraw from the treaty, in a move sponsored by opposition parties but backed by politicians from one of the three coalition parties, the Union of Greens and Farmers.One of the main political groups behind the withdrawal is Latvia First, whose leader Ainars Slesers has called on Latvians to choose between a “natural family” and a “gender ideology with multiple sexes”.Latvia’s ombudswoman Karina Palkova called for the treaty not to be politicised, and the group Equality Now said it was “not a threat to Latvian values, it was a tool to realise them”.Thursday’s vote has prompted an outcry both within Latvia and beyond. Twenty-two thousand people have signed a Latvian petition not to drop the treaty. Women’s rights group …
