Latvia
Articles and news
- Friendship Days/Riga Pride 2008 (04/06/2008)
- Friendship Days/Riga Pride 2007 (06/06/2007)
- Europe reacts on election of new chair for Latvian parliament's human rights committee (20/11/2006)
- Riga Pride 2006 (01/08/2006)
- President of Latvia does not sign amendment to Labour Law (21/06/2006)
- Latvian President signs homophobic constitutional amendment (21/12/2005)
- Members of European Parliament ask Latvian President not to sign constitutional amendment (20/12/2005)
- Call for action to write to the President of Latvia (18/12/2005)
Resources
- Homofobiskā runa Latvijā: Politiķu monitorings
- Homofobiskā runa Latvijā: Politiķu monitorings
- Homophobic Speech in Latvia: Monitoring the Politicians
- Decision of the Latvian Constitutional Court on freedom of assembly, 23 November 2006
- Latvians' Attitudes Towards Sexual Minorities: Dimensions and 'Temperature'
- Sexual Orientation Discrimination in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia
- Meeting the challenge of accession, April 2004
Legal information
Consenting sexual acts between adult men were de-criminalised in Latvia in 1992. Consenting sexual acts between adult women have never been explicitly criminalised.
The age of consent is 16 for all sexual acts.
Latvian Labout Law bans discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. Latvia was the last EU country to transpose the requirement of the EU Employment Equality directive to explicitly ban sexual orientation discrimination in employment (September 2006).
Same-sex marriage is explicitly prohibited by the Latvian law (Article 35.2 of the Civil Law). Also the Latvian Constitution defines marriage as a union of a man and a woman only (Article 110). Same-sex partnerships are not legally recognised in Latvia and cohabiting same-sex partners do not enjoy any of the rights and obligations associated with marriage. In 1999 the Latvian National Human Rights Office sumbitted a registered partnership bill, but the parliamentary Human Rights and Public Affairs Commission rejected the bill.
