Statement by Iluta Lace
Women’s NGOs Network of Latvia
To the Committee on the Elimination of all forms of
Discrimination Against Women
On the Initial Report of the Government of Latvia
31st CEDAW Session, New York, USA
12 July 2004

Distinguished Members of the Committee,

I am speaking here on behalf of a national Women’s NGOs network uniting 33 women’s NGOs in Latvia.

I would like now to highlight one of the most critical issues as regards women/women’s rights in Latvia. In our shadow report we have covered other critical issues as discrimination within education system and difficulties in exercising parental rights based of the experience of various NGOs working in the field of women’s rights and protection in Latvia.

Now I am going to talk about violence against women.

Significant number of women suffers from the violence every year. Statistics show that half of the crimes of violence against women happen in their families. NGOs working with women rights and protection report that domestic violence against women are sizeable and underreported. Victims of abuse are often uninformed about their rights as well as reluctant to seek redress through justice system. One of the obstacles is still prevailing attitudes in society that burden women with guilt and shame. The police and court system also tend to downplay the seriousness of the problem.

The lack of supportive legislation is an important obstacle that prevents problem solving.
There are no shelters designed specifically for battered or abused women.

Trafficking in women is a huge problem in Latvia. It is evaluated that Latvia is not only country of origin or transit for victims; it is also a target country.

We highlight some of the key changes to the legal framework, laws, social attitudes and interventions here.

It is necessary:

1. To define violence against women in the family and in society as a serious crime in administrative and criminal code;

2. In the criminal code, courts should be empowered to issue protective orders for persons who fear further violence; under these orders, abusive partners would be ordered to stay away from such persons, and the court’s injunction would be enforceable by local police and magistrates;

3. To recognise spousal rape as a specific crime;

4. To provide an advocate recognized in the legal proceedings for the person that suffered from violence, in addition to the legal advocate provided to the defendant;

5. To provide adequate and appropriate shelter services to the persons that have suffered from the violence as well as necessary professional assistance for the victims of violence;

6. To develop a comprehensive government programme to fight against violence against women;

7. To create a proper database of the scale and scope of violence against women.

8. To develop education programmes for specialists that work with victims, as well as initiate gender sensitive education and awareness-raising measures for the police and mass media on moral unacceptability of the violence against women.

9. To create a focal point on violence against women within police also as a part of regular work with community on the issue.

10. To allocate funding for NGOs work with preventive work against trafficking in women as well as rehabilitation work. This question of funding for NGOs from the state must be stressed as outside funding is being reduced.

In sum, we are concerned that many changes will not happen if key structural changes are not put in place, and as NGOs we are particularly concerned that at this point there is little administrative capacity, few truly operative structures in place and insufficient government’s funds assigned to the gender equality programmes in the country. The flow of foreign finances that supported NGOs work against violence and other issues is shifting their attention to other countries and makes NGO work extremely difficult. The financial support of government to women NGOs are crucial for implementation of activities on elimination of discrimination against women.

We look forward to questions and discussions, and thank the Committee for its attention.

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