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ACT ON THE STATE OF EMERGENCY (2 December 1992) (unofficial translation,
excerpt)

CHAPTER I General Provisions

Section 1
The state of emergency is a sp ecial legal regime of operation of the agencies, enterprises,
entrepreneurial associations, institutions and organizations of state power and
administration, which allows the restricti on of the rights and freedoms of physical
persons and legal entities, as well as their tasking with addi tional duties to the extent and
in accordance with the order stipulated by the present Law.

Section 2
The state of emergency can be announced:
1) if the State is threatened by an external enemy;
2) if local unrest threatening the existing st ate system has occurred or threatens to occur
in the State or in a part thereof;
3) in case of natural calamities, major accidents or catastrophes, epidemics and
epizootics.

Section 4
The state of emergency shall be announced only for a definite period of time, but no
longer than six months, and the Secretary General of the United Nations shall be
informed of the reasons for announcing the st ate of emergency and the time it had been
announced for.

CHAPTER III Restrictions during the State of Emergency

Section 13
The Supreme Council of the Republic of Latvia or in the cases stipulated by the second
part of Section 3 of this Law, the St ate Defense Council, can impose the following
restrictions upon announcing th e state of emergency:
2) increased maintenance of public orde r and guarding of separate objects;
3) a ban on the organization of meetings, ral lies, marches and demonstrations, as well as
other mass events;
4) a ban on striking;
If the state of emergency has been announced in the cases stipulated by Paragraph 2 of
Section 2 of this Law, the follo wing restrictions can be imposed in addition to those listed
in the preceding paragraph of this Section:
1) to impose a curfew, i.e., a ban to be in the streets or other public places at certain hours
without special permits and documents testifying to one’s identity;
3) to suspend the activity of political partie s and other public organizations if they put
obstacles in the way of imposing the state of emergency;

CHAPTER IV Guarantees of Human Rights and Responsibility during the State of
Emergency

Source: www.legislationline.org

Section 15
Measures in connection with the state of emergency shall be carried out only to the extent
necessary to normalize the situation. The state of emergency shall not serve as a basis for
the limitation of the powers of the institutions of the state power and administration, or
for the restriction of political parties, pub lic organizations, human rights and freedoms in
the districts, regions or towns where the state of emergency has not been announced.

Section 16
The measures taken in connection with the st ate of emergency shall comply with those
intergovernmental agreements and instruments of international law in the field of human
rights which have been concluded or a dhered to by the Republic of Latvia.

Source: www.legislationline.org