SUMMARY Commissioner Nils Muižnieks and his delegation visited Latvia from 5 to 9 September 2016. During the visit, the Commissioner held discussions with state and local authorities, national human rights structures and civil society organisations. The present report draws upon the themes of the visit and focuses on the following major issues: Gender equality and women’s rights Gender equality is one of the key principles underlying the European Convention on Human Rights and remains one of the major goals to be achieved by the member states of the Council of Europe. It is indispensable to integrate the principle of gender equality in an in-depth and transversal manner in all policies and measures. While noting the on-going work in Latvia to develop long-term gender equality policies, the Commissioner encourages the authorities to reinforce their efforts with a view to rendering gender equality effective in reality. More should be done to raise awareness among civil servants and society as a whole about the concept of gender equality and the negative impact of structural inequality upon both men and women, as well as to promote an education system with the above goals in mind. The Commissioner recommends strengthening sex-disaggregated data collection and gender analysis, which should provide a basis for developing concrete activities to bridge, in a systematic manner, the remaining gaps related to women’s rights and gender equality. The foregoing should be supplemented with corresponding budgetary resources, clear and time-bound targets, and identified duty-bearers in charge of implementation. Survey data show that violence against women and domestic violence in Latvia remain among the highest in Europe. In 2014, Latvia adopted regulations on temporary protection and rehabilitation services for the victims of violence. It is essential to ensure that there is the requisite capacity among law enforcement, prosecutorial and judicial authorities to investigate, prosecute and punish all instances of violence against women and attend to their protection needs by establishing a sufficient number of adequately-resourced specialised shelters. On 18 May 2016, Latvia signed the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention). The Commissioner welcomes this step and calls on the authorities to proceed promptly with ratification of the Istanbul Convention. Violence against women and domestic violence is rooted in entrenched societal inequalities between men and women that continue to be reproduced through stereotypes, out-dated educational policies, and the lack of broader awareness about the scale and negative impact of violence against women on families and society as a whole. The Istanbul Convention gives a roadmap for preventing and combating all forms of violence against women by providing mechanisms to progressively change the social norms and practices that reproduce it, and to ensure that the education system is free of gender bias and stereotypes. The Commissioner calls on the authorities to invest in raising public awareness about the objectives of Istanbul Convention, and to ensure that debates on gender equality and violence against women are based on evidence-based research and genderdisaggregated data. In this process, the Commissioner attaches particular importance to the engagement of men and the responsibility of political and community leaders to send an unequivocal message condemning violence against women and domestic violence. Human rights of children The legal and institutional framework for the protection of children’s rights is largely in line with the international human rights obligations in this field. Latvia is party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child; furthermore, the Constitution and the Law on the Protection of the Rights of the Child stress the special protection needs of children with disabilities and prohibit discrimination. However, the Commissioner notes a persistent “implementation gap” in several areas, which will require a renewed commitment by the Latvian authorities in order to address the well-being and development of all children in the country. As of 1 July 2016, there were 6301 stateless children in Latvia, among them 4816 children under the age of 15. While amendments to the Citizenship Law have simplified the procedure of granting citizenship to stateless children born to “non-citizen” parents, there is still the requirement that one of the child’s parents formally 1