After more than thirteen hours of debate, the Latvian parliament decided by 56 votes to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention. This is the first such case in the European Union.
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On October 30, a majority of Saeima deputies voted for Latvia to withdraw from the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, better known as the “Istanbul Convention.”
After more than 13 hours of marathon debates, the deputies decided to withdraw from this international treaty – 56 voted “for”, 32 “against”, and 2 abstained.
Last week, after lengthy discussions, the Saeima had already supported the withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention at the first reading. 52 deputies voted in favor, mostly from opposition parties – United List, National Alliance, “For Stability!” and “Latvia First” – together with one party from the ruling coalition, the Union of Greens and Farmers, and several independent MPs.
Until the second reading, proposals for amendments to the bill could be submitted. However, on October 29, Wednesday, at the meeting of the responsible committee, all proposals were rejected, and several representatives of non-governmental organizations present at the meeting were not even given the floor.
Although the Saeima has already expressed its will, this is not necessarily the final decision – only if President Edgars Rinkēvičs decides to intervene in this matter. For the law on withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention to take effect, it must be signed by the President of Latvia. So far, Rinkēvičs has not revealed what decision he will make. He has ten days to do so.
The president may return the law to the Seimas for reconsideration. In that case, the Saeima, without discussion, would forward the president’s motivated remarks to the responsible committee and set a deadline for submitting proposals and reviewing the law again.
During this additional consideration, the parliament would examine only the president’s remarks and directly related proposals.
If the Saeima does not change the law, the president would no longer be able to submit comments again.
The Constitution provides that the President of the Republic may suspend the promulgation of a law adopted by the Seimas for two months. At the president’s request, this can also be done by at least one-third of Saeima members, i.e., at least 34 MPs.
If the Latvian president suspends the promulgation of the law, the Central Election Commission should start collecting signatures to initiate a referendum to repeal this law. The collection of signatures would last 30 days, and for the referendum to take place, at least one-tenth of the voters who participated in the last Saeima elections must sign. In this case, that would be more than 154,000 citizens – a very high requirement.
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Beyond these legal mechanisms, there is still the possibility to appeal to the Constitutional Court, and the parties “Progressives” and “New Unity” have already declared their support for this initiative. Upon receiving such a request, the Constitutional Court would have to decide whether to initiate a case. It is noteworthy that such a decision would set a precedent, as the Constitutional Court has not yet considered any case related to the denunciation of a signed international treaty.
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