LATVIA: The Council of Europe rights watchdog has expressed alarm at Latvia's appointment of an outspoken anti-gay activist to lead its parliamentary human rights committee.
The election of Janis Smits, a member of the Latvia First Party who is a Lutheran minister and vehement critic of homosexuals, was condemned by minority group activists who regularly upbraid Latvia for failing to protect the rights of gays and lesbians.
Mirroring widespread anti-gay feeling in the Baltic region and Poland, the Latvian capital Riga banned a so-called gay pride march this summer, and people who took part in defiance of the ban were pelted with eggs and bags of faeces by protesters.
Mr Smits, who has described homosexuality as a sin and gays as degenerate, recently opposed changes to a law making it illegal for Latvian employers to discriminate against staff because of their sexuality, complaining, according to local media, that it would "open the gate for paedophilia, pederasty and other forms of perversion". The Council of Europe's secretary general, Terry Davis, said Latvia's standing would not be enhanced by the appointment of Mr Smits.
"I am very concerned about reports that the Latvian parliament has elected a leading anti-gay activist as the head of its human rights committee," Mr Davis said in a statement. "The parliamentarians who made this decision should realise that what is at stake is the international reputation of Latvia." Human rights group Amnesty International has said it will complain about the appointment of Mr Smits to the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, who is due to meet the Latvian prime minister on Friday.
After being elected by parliament, Mr Smits dismissed media criticism of him as "foolish".
