By Civic Alliance — Latvia
On 23 October 2025, the Latvian parliament supported a draft law proposing Latvia’s withdrawal from the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (the Istanbul Convention). The same parliament had only ratified the same convention in 2023.
The decision triggered widespread public backlash. Several protests against the withdrawal took place across Latvia, the largest one gathering 10,000 people in Riga, as well as in other European cities and even further abroad, such as in the United States and Australia. The protest took place a few days after President Edgars Rinkēvičs announced that the withdrawal law would return to parliament for further review.
During this period, civil society organisations working on violence prevention, victim support, women’s rights, and LGBTQI+ issues faced intense disinformation and smear campaigns. In addition, CSO representatives were left out of parliamentary committee meetings regarding this issue.
Ultimately, due to strong civil society mobilisation, the parliament decided not to proceed with the withdrawal. Instead, the decision was postponed and left to the next parliament to consider.