Most experts and non-governmental organizations working on violence prevention issues oppose the plan to withdraw from the convention, expressing concerns that it will weaken the protection of victims against violence and negatively affect Latvia's international image in the eyes of Western allies.

Following the Saeima majority's decision, the international human rights organization Amnesty International 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, Theodor Roussopoulos, announced on Friday that the decision of the Latvian Parliament to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention 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 May 1 of 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 centers, a 24-hour crisis line, specialized support centers for victims of sexual violence, and protect and support child witnesses of violence.