On Thursday, October 30th, Latvia’s parliament voted to withdraw the Baltic country from the Istanbul Convention, the Council of Europe’s treaty against domestic violence and violence against women. As we reported earlier, Latvian lawmakers argued the convention promotes gender theory. Had the bill been approved by the country’s president, it would have made Latvia the first European Union country to quit the Istanbul Convention.
However, Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs refused to sign the draft legislation, saying it would send “a contradictory message to both Latvian society and international allies.”
Hungary, Slovakia, and Bulgaria have previously called the treaty unacceptable and completely incompatible with their national traditions and refused to ratify the document.
