Human rights in Latvia

Human rights in Latvia are generally respected by the government, according to the US Department of State and Freedom House.^[1]^[2] Latvia is ranked above-average among the world's sovereign states in democracy,^[3] press freedom,^[4] privacy^[5] and human development.^[6] The country has a relatively large ethnic Russian community, which has basic rights guaranteed under the constitution and international human rights laws ratified by the Latvian government.^[1]^[7]

However, human rights organisations have reported multiple problems. Especially non-citizens – including stateless persons – suffer from limited or no access to a broad range of rights. Also there were problems with police abuse of detainees and arrestees, poor prison conditions and overcrowding, judicial corruption, discrimination against women, incidents of violence against ethnic minorities, and societal violence and incidents of government discrimination against homosexuals.^[1]^[8]^[9]

In March 2020, Latvia derogated from some of its obligations under ECHR^[10] and ICCPR,^[11] having referred to the COVID-19 outbreak.

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^ Note verbale
^ Depositary Notification