Human rights in Estonia

Human rights in Estonia are generally respected by the government. Estonia is ranked above-average in democracy, privacy and human development. The country has a large ethnic Russian community, whom has guaranteed a basic rights under the constitution and international human rights laws ratified by the Estonian government.

However, human rights organisations have reported multiple problems. Linguistic minorities face discrimination especially in employment and education. Also there are problems with police use of force, conditions in detention and lengthy pretrial detentions.

Human rights organisations

Amnesty International

According to Amnesty International, linguistic minorities face discrimination in a number of areas, especially in employment and education. Migrants were exposed to harassment by state officials and attacks by extremist groups. Criminal investigations into allegations of excessive use of force by police were dismissed. Also Estonian security police, Kaitsepolitsei, made allegations against the Legal Information Centre for Human Rights (LICHR).

In March, 2009, the UN Special Rapporteur on racism, reporting on a visit in September 2007, expressed his concern at the conditions of the Russian-speaking minority. The Rapporteur noted a high level of discrimination particularly in the field of employment, where Russian speakers suffer unemployment rates almost twice as high as among ethnic Estonians. The Rapporteur urged the government to take measures to facilitate the naturalization process of stateless people.

Earlier, Amnesty had noted in a 2006 report that members of the Russian-speaking minority in Estonia enjoy very limited linguistic and minority rights, and often find themselves de facto excluded from the labour market and educational system. The discriminating policies of Estonia have led to "disproportionately high levels of unemployment among the Russian-speaking linguistic minority. This in turn has further contributed to social exclusion and vulnerability to other human rights abuses. In consequence, many from this group are effectively impeded from the full enjoyment of their economic, social and cultural rights (ESC rights)."

Human Rights Watch

According to Human Rights Watch report, 1993, the organisation did not found systematic, serious abuses of human rights in the area of citizenship. Non-citizens in Estonia were guaranteed basic rights under the Constitution of Estonia. However there was a problem to granting of citizenship equally to all who were permanent residents at the time Estonia gained independence.

United States Department of State

According to Human Right Report of United States Department of State, Estonia generally respects the human rights of citizens and the large ethnic Russian noncitizen community. However there were problems with police use of force, conditions in detention and lengthy of pretrial detention. Also there were problems in domestic violence, inequality of women's salaries, child abuse, and trafficking of women and children.

International Federation of Human Rights

the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)–a coalition of 155 human rights groups–has called upon the Estonian authorities to "put an end to any practice of discrimination against the Russian-speaking minority, which constitutes about 30% of the Estonian population, and to conform in any circumstances with the provisions of the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination."

FIDH and the Latvian Human Rights Committee have also expressed concerns about human rights violations committed in April 2007 during riots and protests in Tallin that left 150 people injured and in which one ethnic Russian was murdered. FIDH highlighted the use of disproportionate force by the Estonian police against peaceful demonstrators and passers-by. It reported that Russophone protestors were beaten and mistreated after being taken into custody. One human rights activist, Mark Sirõk was arrested despite the fact that he did not even participate in the protests owing to the fact he was ill and at home preparing for his school exams.

Other institutions

The European Commission has noted that Estonia offers no protection against discrimination on the grounds of ethnic or racial origin

The Council of Europe has noted that "the Roma community in Estonia is still disproportionately affected by unemployment and discrimination in the field of education." The European Commission had previously conducted close monitoring of Estonia in 2000 and concluded that there is no evidence that these minorities are subject to discrimination.

The European Centre for Minority Issues has also examined Estonia's treatment of its Russophone minority. In its conclusion, the centre notes that while all international organisations agree that no forms of systematic discrimination towards the Russian-speaking population can be observed and praises the efforts made thus far in amendments to laws on education, language and the status of non-citizens, there nevertheless remains the issue of the large number of such non-citizens. As of May 2, 2009, 103 999, or 7.6%, of Estonia's population remain non-citizens, dropping from 30% in the 1990s.

The think-tank Development and Transition has discussed the situation of Estonia and Latvia in 2005. James Hughes wrote an article, where he accussed Latvia and Estonia to employ a "sophisticated and extensive policy regime of discrimination" against their respective Russophone populations. Nils Muiznieks responded, "Hughes provides simple conclusions about the complex realities of minority policies and inter-ethnic relations in Estonia and Latvia".

A 2005 study by European Network Against Racism found that 17.1% of ethnic non-Estonians alleged that they had experienced limitations to their rights or degrading treatment in the workplace durin the last 3 years because of their ethnic origin.

Critical views

Scholars

Finnish legal sociologist and criminologist Johan Bäckman has said that there is "criminal discrimination" of Russians in Estonia, and has likened the situation to the former Apartheid regime of South Africa.. He has also claimed that Estonia was not occupied by the Soviet Union – instead, Estonia and the Soviet Union made a mutual agreement about military bases in 1935-1940. "After that, Estonia joined the Soviet Union. And after that the Estonian republic ceased to exist. And if something ceased to exist, it of course cannot be occupied by any forces," Bäckman said in May, 2009. "The myth of occupation is a form of hate speech against the Russian population in Estonia. The only purpose of this myth is to accuse Russians of being criminals and murderers. This is racist propaganda against the Russian minority."

A recent paper presented to the Journal of Common Market Studies by James R. Hughes of the London School of Economics predicts "a significant out-migration by Russophones to other EU Member States" as an effect of the "regimes of discrimination" and the minority's "poor prospects for integration or assimilation" in Estonia and Latvia.

Zvi Gitelman, political scientist at Michigan University and consultant to the instiution's Yivo Institute for Jewish Studies, points out that

"In the decade after the fall of the USSR, the successor states divided themselves into those seeking to construct themselves as 'civic' states–where the nexus that ties citizens to each other and to the state is political and not based on race, ethnicity, religion, or culture–and those that prefer to be "ethnic" states, based on one nation and serving it primarily."

Characterizing the situation in Estonia as "close to the 'ethnic' model," Gitelman points towards the Baltic states' decision of stripping citizenship from "non-Latvians and non-Estonians who immigrated in the Soviet period as well as their descendants born in the two Baltic republics"–a category pertinent to most of Estonia's Jews. The Jerusalem-based Hebrew University historian Robert S. Wistrich writes that the "primary objective" of the post-Soviet-era governments of the Baltic states is "to further the interests and well-being of the majority ethnic groups in these republics." Regarding this post-Soviet period of independence for the country's Jewish community, Wistrich observes that "many Jews in these republics sensed that they had become second-rate citizens," with those who had "fought against Soviet rule...[and] had been directly or indirectly involved in the murder of Jews during the Nazi period of occupation" now lionized as "symbols of Soviet occupation." Similarly, Jerome A. Chanes writes that Estonia's "annual commemmorations of World War II events continue to have antisemitic overtones."
Concerning the present-day population of Estonian Roma, Bristol University sociologist Will Guy writes that

"[post-Soviet] Latvia and Estonia were notable for their vigorous attempts at ethnic cleansing by legalistic methods. Although the strategy of refusing citizenship on the grounds of poor knowledge of the local language was directed mainly against Russian inhabitants, Roma too were victims. Only genuine Latvian and Estonian Roma were granted citizenship and many Roma in Estonia were relative newcomers since most indigenous Estonian Roma (Laiusy and Laloritka) had been exterminated by joint German-Estonian punishment squads during the war."

Journalists

According to veteran German author, journalist and Russia-correspondent Gabriele Krone-Schmalz, there is deep disapproval of everything Russian in Estonia. She contends that the alleged level of discrimination regarding ethnic Russians in Estonia would have posed a barrier to acceptance into the EU; however, Western media gave the matter very little attention. In an interview with the Netherlands-based NRC Hanselsblad, Hans Glaubitz, a Dutch ambassador to Estonia, mentioned that he resigned due to the homophobia and racism once they could not "cope with gay hatred and racism on the Estonian streets."

International rankings

• Democracy Index, 2008: 37 out of 167
• Worldwide Privacy Index, 2007: 13 out of 26.
• Worldwide Quality-of-life Index, 2005: 68 out of 111.
• Human Development Index, 2008: 42 out of 179.

See also

• LGBT rights in Estonia
• Russians in Estonia