■ Latvian government ministers Ainars Baštiks (left) and Oskars Kastēns reported that court ruling was “completely unjustified and unacceptable”

RIGA, January 24, 2008  –  The ruling by the European Court of Human Rights earlier this week that exclusion of gay men and women from the application process was discriminatory and therefore in conflict with the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms has been attacked by the First Party of Latvia and Latvia’s Way (LPP/LC) parties.

The attack from Latvia comes 24 hours after Polish politicians slammed the ruling by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights.

A report by children’s and family affairs minister Ainars Baštiks and minister with special portfolio for public integration Oskars Kastēns called the ECHR court ruling “completely unjustified and unacceptable”, according to the Latvian daily newspaper Diena.

The two ministers said that the ruling ignores circumstances in which an adopted child should live, the psychological compatibility between future parents and the child, and the possible influence which the child might face.

LPP/LC says that the ministers and all members of the political group agree.

Today’s Diena says that the LPP/LC group “categorically rejects” the comparison of homosexual relations or same-gender cohabitation with a family, and permission for homosexual couples to seek the status of a family and to adopt children violates Section 110 of the Latvian Constitution which says that “the State shall protect and support marriage, the family, the rights of parents and rights of the child…”

Mozaika, the Latvian gay rights group, charges that LPP/LC has “confused various concepts” in its announcement, “revealed its lack of knowledge”, and falsely interpreted the fundamental rights that are guaranteed in the Latvian Constitution.

The group cites Section 89 of the Constitution states that Latvia recognises and protects fundamental human rights in accordance with international treaties to which it is party.

[Latvia signed the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms on February 10, 1995, and ratified it on June 27, 1997.  The Convention came into effect in Latvia on the date of ratification.]

“As a member state of the Council of Europe, Latvia must observe the terms of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms,” Mozaika says in a statement.

“The Convention and the law with which the Latvian parliament (the Saeima) ratified it both state very clearly that the State recognises the right of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to interpret the Convention.

“Accordingly, any ECHR ruling is binding to all countries which have ratified the Convention.  This, in turn, means that the fundamental rights that are defined in the Constitution must be interpreted in accordance with the Convention and the interpretation of Convention norms that are stated in ECHR rulings.

“The argument that the ECHR ruling is in violation of the Constitution is not only false, but in fact impossible,” Mozaika says.

Translations from Latvia courtesy ILGA-Europe.

■ Statistics show that approximately 33 per cent of Latvia’s children are growing up in ‘single-parent families’, while 44% of newborns are born to unmarried parents.

■ The Ecumenical News International news agency in Switzerland is reporting that Cardinal Jānis Pujāts, the head of the Roman Catholic in Latvia, has urged political party leaders not to field homosexual candidates in elections or appoint gays and lesbians to public positions. Almost a year ago, Cardinal Pujāts claimed that all gays were “prostitutes”.

SEE ALSO

Polish Politicians Dismiss European Court Ruling on Gay Adoption.  While gay men and women welcomed this weeks ruling by the European Court of Human Rights on adoption by gay men and women, Polish politicians have effectively said that they would take no notice of what the Grand Chamber of Europe’s highest court has said.  (UK Gay News, January 23, 2008)

Exclusion of Gays, Lesbians from Adoption Process Breaks European Law – Court.  The European Court of Human Rights has ruled today that gay men and women are eligible to eligible to adopt children.  (UK Gay News, January 22, 2008)

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Posted: 24 January 2008 at 20:00 (UK time)