On Wednesday, November 5, Latvia’s parliament decided to shelve discussions on whether to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention for a year, after the president returned the bill to lawmakers for reconsideration.
Parliament had passed the bill to withdraw from the treaty on October 31, arguing that the Convention promotes “gender theories.”
President Edgars Rinkēvičs had criticised the initial decision by lawmakers to pull out of the Convention. He returned the bill to parliament for reconsideration on Monday, saying in a statement that it “sent a contradictory message to both Latvian society and Latvia’s allies.”
Prime Minister Evika Siliņa praised parliament’s decision to postpone the vote until November 1, 2026, after the country holds elections in the autumn of next year. She called the move “a victory for democracy, the rule of law, and women’s rights” in a post on X on Wednesday.
