Rīga City Council Bans March for Equality
Statement by Mozaika
Mass media information
Rīga City Council Bans March for Equality
The Rīga City Council’s Commission on Meetings, Marches and Demonstrations met for a second time today and repealed a decision which it had taken on May 8. The result is that approval has not been given to an announcement by Mozaīka, an organisation of LGBT people and their friends, that it would organise the Baltic Friendship Days march in the Vērmaņdārzs park and surrounding streets at noon on Saturday, May 16.
We believe this decision to be unlawful, without any legal justification whatsoever, and based on political pressure. The march was announced and approved in a legally correct way. Since May 8, there have been no radical changes in terms of security issues that would make it permissible to repeal the event. The commission offered an alternative – holding the march on the 11th November Shoreline or in the Vērmaņdārzs park, without going into the streets. Because these changes have no legal justification, Mozaīka rejected them.
At this moment, Mozaīka is preparing a petition before the Administrative District Court.
The commission today made reference to a protest letter signed by 34 members of the Rīga City Council who argued that the approved route was in violation of the Latvian Constitution. In Section 103, the Constitution says that the right to free assembly can be limited exclusively so as to “protect the health and morality of society.” The law on local governments says that local governments are obliged to “combat drunkenness and immorality.”
Mozaīka board chairwoman Linda Freimane: “What is clear here is that the executive director of the Rīga City Council, Andris Grīnbergs, has yielded before political pressure, and that has everything to do with two things – the approaching local government election and the influence which an organisation known as “Fund for the Family” has on members of the City Council. All of this foments hatred in Latvia and causes Latvia to become an object of mockery among other European countries. It is, after all, quite clear that our “immorality” or “drunkenness” will not be reduced just because we march down one street and not another.”
For more information:
Evita Goša, +370-2922-1044
Kristīne Garina, +370-2941-3155
Linda Freimane +370-2940-4111
