Doc. 8315
8 February 1999

Amendments to some Estonian laws violate the rights of minorities

Written Declaration No. 289

This written declaration commits only the members who have signed it

1.       The Estonian authorities' recent actions, in particular the adoption of amendments to the laws on local elections, on parliamentary elections and on the language, substantially impede the participation of representatives of national minorities in these elections and are essentially directed at squeezing them out of active political life in the country.

2.       According to the amendments, the candidates for elections have to undergo preliminary tests of knowledge of the state language, which opens the way to the curtailment of democracy and arbitrary actions. It can seriously affect the composition of the lists of candidates in the north-east of Estonia, where non-Estonians make up more than 90% of the population and mostly, for objective reasons, do not have a good knowledge of the Estonian language.

3.       These acts restrict the rights of minorities' and violate Article 3 of the First Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 25 of the International Convenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as Article 15 of the OSCE Oslo Recommendations on National Minorities' language rights. The Estonian practice of drafting laws and programmes which directly concern the national minorities' interests without taking into account the opinion of their representatives is contrary to the main provisions of the 1998 OSCE Copenhagen document and is not in line with main OSCE policies in this area, and in particular the documents of the 1998 OSCE Locarno Conference which call for a greater national minorities' involvement in decision-making at national and regional levels.

4.       The above-mentioned changes to the legislation have been adopted in the Republic of Estonia despite the opinion of Mr Van der Stoel, OSCE High Commissioner for national minorities and the negative opinion pronounced by the Round Table on national minorities' issues under the Estonian president.

5.       The undersigned, members of the Assembly, call on the Assembly and its competent committees to examine the situation and to contribute to the cancellation of amendments infringing upon the rights of the national minorities in Estonia.

Signed : ¹

Glotov, Russia, UEL

Fyodorov, Russia, LDR

Maltsev, Russia, UEL

Vishnyakov, Russia, NR

Oleinik, Russia, UEL

Filimonov; Russia, UEL

Shaklein, Russia, UEL

Marmazov, Ukraine, UEL

Oliynik, Ukraine, UEL

Kulbaka, Russia, UEL

_______________________

Total = 10

¹        SOC: Socialist Group

      EPP/CD: Group of the European People’s Party

      EDG:European Democratic Group

      LDR : Liberal, Democratic and Reformers’ Group

      UEL : Group of the Unified European Left

      NR : Not registered in a group