Equal Rights (Latvian: Līdztiesība, ER) was a political party in Latvia, mainly supported by the Russian minority.
ER was founded on the basis of the "Equal Rights" faction of the Supreme Soviet as an NGO in 1993. The Equal Rights faction (Russian: Равноправие) had been founded in April, 1990, after the Latvian parliamentary election, 1990.
The NGO transformed into a party in 1996. Its leaders were MPs Tatjana Ždanoka and Sergejs Dīmanis. The organization participated in the 1994 municipal election and the 1995 legislative election within the Socialist Party of Latvia list.
In 1998, ER joined with two other predominantly Russian parties, the Latvian Socialist Party and the National Harmony Party to found the alliance For Human Rights in United Latvia (Latvian: Par Cilvēka Tiesībām Vienotā Latvijā; ForHRUL). The alliance split in 2003, with the National Harmony Party and the Socialist Party abandoning the coalition, leaving the newly founded rump Free Choice in People's Europe (made up of dissident Socialist Party and Harmony Party members, like Jakovs Pliners, who opposed the decision to quit the alliance) in the ForHRUL coalition.
From 2001 ER's leader was Tatjana Ždanoka and its chairman was Vladimirs Buzajevs.
In 2007, the 11th Congress of the party decided to merge it with Free Choice in People's Europe, transforming their block ForHRUL into a unified party. The party failed to win any seats in the 2010 legislative election.
Famous quotes containing the words equal and/or rights:
“The new concept of the child as equal and the new integration of children into adult life has helped bring about a gradual but certain erosion of these boundaries that once separated the world of children from the word of adults, boundaries that allowed adults to treat children differently than they treated other adults because they understood that children are different.”
—Marie Winn (20th century)
“Dat little man in black dar, he say women can’t have as much rights as men, ‘cause Christ wan’t a woman! Whar did your Christ come from? Whar did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothin’ to do wid Him.”
—Sojourner Truth (1797–1883)