Soros Foundation–Latvia

The Soros Foundation–Latvia gave priority to legal advocacy for people with mental disabilities and for environmental issues as well as to promoting diversity and the legal status of civil society organizations.

The foundation and its partners brought a number of strategic litigation cases that strengthened protections for the rights of people with mental disabilities. One Constitutional Court ruling required a court to approve any decision on involuntary hospitalization and treatment of a person at a psychiatric hospital.

The foundation supported educational and empowerment initiatives for people accessing mental health care services and for medical personnel and social workers; community-based mental health care services; and employment and professional rehabilitation for users of mental health care services.

Success in several lawsuits that the foundation brought in cooperation with Transparency International Latvia not only halted illegal construction work in protected natural environments but also set a precedent for ensuring that laws are interpreted and enforced properly. The foundation supported awareness-raising activities and advocated on behalf of legislative proposals to remove biases against same-sex partnerships and counter a rising wave of politically and religiously inspired homophobia.

The foundation, the Baltic-American Partnership Fund, and several nongovernmental organizations campaigned successfully to increase public funding of civic activities and to resist attempts to diminish the independence of the Society Integration Fund, the main administrator of European Union funding for civil society organizations. The foundation held a number of public events with distinguished international guest lecturers on human rights and the European future, which enlivened public discourse and inspired Latvian activists. The foundation’s Wider Europe Initiative focused on promoting European values and reforms in Eastern Europe, particularly in Georgia and Moldova.