National goal of Latvia is to respect human rights and reduce violence

Ombudsperson’s Ms Karina Palkova statement on respecting human rights and reducing violence

Domestic violence is a serious violation of human rights, and it is the duty of the State to protect everyone from it or to take specific support measures if violence has occurred. My role as the Ombudsperson is to monitor that the state fulfils this obligation. The Istanbul Convention has a clear objective, and speculations about the Convention’s incompatibility with the Constitution or family values is unfounded and come at the expense and great risk to victims of violence.

Let me remind that the Convention continues to be a very important instrument requiring the State to continuously improve mechanisms for protecting the rights of victims, and my task as the Ombudsperson is to constantly remind the State of its obligations to protect every person from violence. Withdrawal from this Convention would signal the State’s renunciation of the obligations it has undertaken, and this would send a negative signal to both the people of Latvia and the international community.

I would like to reiterate that, regardless of the decision of the Parliament on the Istanbul Convention, every resident of Latvia should know that human rights, as defined in international and national legislation, will be protected. People in Latvia must be able to rely on the fact that the protection of human rights in Latvia will not be jeopardized, regardless of political debates or decisions.