Violence against women in Latvia is disgrace - justice minister

  • 2023-05-02
  • LETA/TBT Staff

RIGA, May 2 (LETA) - Violence against women in Latvia is disgrace, said Justice Minister Inese Libina-Egnere (New Unity) in an interview with the Latvian public television today.

Commenting on the murder of a woman in Jekabpils, the minister said that the Latvian society should stop ideologizing violence against women and domestic violence. She underscored that this is the reason such violence often is not reported.

"Statistics on violent crime in Latvia is smaller than in countries that have ratified the Istanbul Convention, not because the society is better, but because the crimes are not reported, they are kept silent, sneered over and stigmatized,” said Libina-Egnere, adding that in the particular Jekabpils case the women had turned to the police, but the crime had not been investigated and prevented.

"It is a huge disgrace for the country. Also that violence against women in the 21st century is not considered a crime enough to be investigated, tried, but it can be sneered upon," the politician said.

In her opinion, this attitude shows that the system is rotten. It will be possible to introduce improvements in the legislation, but the attitude is the problem - starting from politics and ending with each person who turned away from the crime.

Libina-Egnere has asked the coalition partners who have not even read the text of the Istanbul Convention, but are spreading different myths about it, to read it and also read the Constitutional Court decision, saying that there is nothing in the Convention that could threaten the values establishing in the Constitution.

She underscored that domestic violence is not just a matter within the family. The state should defense these people, and this is what the Istanbul Convention and the Criminal Law does.

Libina-Egnere also said that Russia has been spreading false information about the Istanbul Convention, and it is a country where domestic violence is not considered violence at all.

As reported, on April 16 in Jekabpils municipality, a 40-years-old woman was stabbed and killed by her former partner in the presence of her child and mother. Before the deadly attack, the killer had been stalking and threatening the woman who repeatedly reported his threats to the police, but the law enforcement authorities eventually failed to protect her life.