ALERT: at least four dead in Russian strike on residential building in Kharkiv
In breaking news, the following story has emerged from the international scene.
The Marta Center rewarded with the Simone Veil prize for its action in Latvia and Ukraine in favor of women victims of violence The Marta Center, one of the main Latvian NGOs defending women’s rights, which also works in Ukraine, received the Simone Veil prize on Friday in Paris, awarded by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Marta Center “accompanies victims of violence by providing them with legal, psychological and social support”, recalled the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, during the award ceremony, two days before International Women’s Rights Day, March 8. In Latvia, he “supported” in 2025 “more than 700 women and girls victims of violence or sexual exploitation. Since the aggression of Ukraine by Russia, the center also acts for Ukrainian women victims of war and violence,” continued the minister. “With its local partners in Ukraine, the center helps them find accommodation solutions, supports them in their legal process and offers them psychological support,” he said. “This award gives us strength and the practical means to continue,” reacted its founder, Iluta Lace. Since 2019, the Simone Veil Prize of the French Republic for the equality of women and men has distinguished a person or a collective who works against violence and discrimination against women and equality. The jury also wanted to “welcome the decisive action of the Marta Center for the sustainability of the Istanbul Convention” (international treaty adopted in 2011 by the Council of Europe to combat violence against women), declared the president of the jury, magistrate Ombeline Mahuzier. The jury wanted to “send a strong message to all the organizations fighting in other member states for the sustainability of this convention and to avoid the reactionary exploitation of this legal instrument,” she added. At the end of October 2025, a majority of Latvian MPs voted in favor of their country’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, ratified just a year earlier. Voters denounced the notion of “gender”, instead of sex, and “a foreign ideology interfering in the daily life” of Latvians. After the blocking of the Latvian president, Edgars Rinkevics, who sent the text back to Parliament for re-examination, the deputies decided to postpone the discussion on the withdrawal until November 1, 2026, i.e. after the legislative elections, scheduled for the fall.
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Source: This article was originally published in another language by International : Toute l’actualité sur Le Monde.fr. and has been translated and adapted for our global English-speaking audience. Read the original article here.