Consulted by Latvian Minister of Justice Inese Lībiņa-Egnere, the Venice Commission published an opinion on Tuesday 16 December on Latvia’s draft law to withdraw from the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, known as the Istanbul Convention.
Such a withdrawal is “legally authorised”, the Council of Europe’s constitutional law experts point out, but it must be “carefully justified, consistent with democratic...