Latvia, Law and Regulations, Legislation, Society

As reported, the public initiative for adoption of the Cohabitation Law in Latvia has gathered 10,000 signatures on the manabalss.lv public initiatives portal, which is the minimum required number for starting a discussion of any public legislative initiative in the parliament.

The author of the public initiative is politician Juris Puce (For Latvia's Development), currently a member of the Riga City Council, who put forth the initiative about three years ago.

Puce called for the adoption of the Cohabitation Law in view of the large number of unmarried couples in Latvia, who are living together but lack legal protection. Most Western countries, including neighboring Estonia, have already chosen to adopt similar laws, he said.

Puce told LETA that the outcome of the vote in the parliament did not surprise him, considering that the Saeima Mandates, Ethics and Submissions Committee had already dismissed the initiative. Puce said he had expected lawmakers and experts to at least engage in a wider debate on the issue to identify the reasons why hundreds of thousands of couples in Latvia live in unregistered partnerships.

Those lawmakers that voted against this proposal apparently do not care about the problem, the leader of For Latvia's Development said. Puce said that together with his allies he would keep fighting for a legal recognition of all families in Latvia. Puce plans to consult nongovernmental organizations in order to choose the right path to achieving this goal.

Previously 100 prominent Latvian personalities already signed a declaration calling for the adoption of the Cohabitation Law that would apply to unmarried couples, whether same-sex or heterosexual. "No family values will be undermined and the demographic situation will not deteriorate, if two grownup people were allowed to register their relationship officially. We have to stop fearing threats that actually don't exist," the statement said.

The Cohabitation Law drafted on the basis of a similar law adopted in Estonia proposes to give unmarried couples an option to have their partnership registered with a notary which would grant them the relevant civil and administrative rights.

The majority of politicians representing the ruling coalition, however, have so far voiced a skeptical or even downright negative attitude to the proposal.