The Women's Rights Organization, the"Marta" Center, and several other non-governmental organizations have sent a letter to the President of Latvia, calling for the law on withdrawal from the convention to be submitted for a second reading in the Saeima. It has been signed by more than 2,000 people.

The JV Saeima faction has also addressed the President with such an appeal.

Meanwhile, Rinkēvičs has indicated that he will carefully evaluate the law adopted by the Saeima on withdrawal from the convention,"taking into account state and legal, not ideological or political, considerations."

Following the Saeima majority's decision, the international human rights organization Amnesty International has also released a statement. The organization's senior specialist on women's rights, Monika Kosta Riba, assesses that"Latvia's withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention would be a devastating blow to the protection and rights of women and girls in the country, as well as all people facing domestic violence, which sends a dangerous message to abusers that they can exploit and kill women and girls with impunity."

Meanwhile, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Theodors Roussopoulos, announced on Friday that the decision of the Latvian Parliament is a dangerous signal.

In Latvia, the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, or the so-called Istanbul Convention, entered into force on 1 May last year. It is an international treaty that requires its member states to develop a coordinated policy to better protect women from all forms of violence, as well as women and men from domestic violence. Among other things, member states must provide victims with comprehensive assistance and protection, crisis centres, a 24-hour crisis hotline, specialised support centres for victims of sexual violence, and protect and support children who are witnesses of violence.