The Parliament of Latvia has approved the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, also known as the Istanbul Convention. The convention will come into effect in May 2024.
The Parliament of Latvia has approved the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, also known as the Istanbul Convention. The convention will come into effect in May 2024.
The convention, adopted by the Council of Europe in Istanbul in 2011, sets international standards for combating violence against women and domestic violence.
Lithuania signed the Istanbul Convention in 2013, but the parliament did not approve it due to opposition from conservative groups claiming that the document introduced non-binary gender concepts.
5 EU countries not yet signed
Five EU countries (Lithuania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia) have not yet signed the Istanbul Convention.
In October, the Lithuanian Constitutional Court was asked to clarify whether the terms used in the convention, including “gender,” were compatible with the Lithuanian constitution. The court ruled that the Istanbul Convention was compatible with the constitution, confirming its aim to eliminate violence against women and domestic violence.