Petition brought by pensioners to challenge the constitutionality of the state pension law, which temporarily restricted payment of pension funds; Right to social security; Domestic application of international law; Older person’s rights.
Finding the law to be unconstitutional, the Court ordered the Parliament to draft a plan for the repayment of the reduced pension funds by March 2010. Since this decision, the IMF has increased pressure on the government of Latvia to reduce “early” retirement, which they define as retirement before the age of 65. Currently, the actual average retirement age is just under 61 compared with a statutory retirement age of 62, which the IMF is requiring Latvia to incrementally increase to 65 by 2021.
Austerity measures have provoked civil unrest in many countries since the 2009 financial crisis. In this case, the Latvian Constitutional Court asserted the primacy of constitutional and human rights law in making public policy decisions on fiscal allocations. Further, the Court’s declaration that international loan provisions could not trump human rights obligations was a major victory for those seeking greater accountability from multilateral institutions to universal human rights principles.