TALLINN, Mar 19, BNS – Doudou Diene, special rapporteur of the United Nations on racial discrimination, who provoked contradictory opinions with his views last fall, expressed satisfaction with the strong political will of the Estonian government in the solution of problems conneccted with racism and discrimination.
According to the Foreign Ministry, Diene said presenting his recommendational report at a session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday that the problem had been acknowledged at a high level in Tallinn.
He also underlined the work of government institutions and agencies actively dealing with the respective issues in Estonia.
The special rapporteur recommended to Estonia strengthening the justice chancellor’s institution, which should deal with cases of racial, ethnic or religious discrimination. He found the government should set up next to the justice chancellor’s office an independent institution with powers to fight against discrimination. To avoid dubbing the justice chancellor’s functions, Diene said, the new institution should be responsible for fighting against discrimination and promote multiculturalism.
Diene thanked the Estonian government for cooperation and oppeness during the visit.
The special rapporteur said that Estonia had acceded to all the main international human rights instruments. The report recognized tolerance of the Estonian society, on the basis of which solution of the given questions could be further improved.
According to the ministry Diene said that the legacy left by the long-term occupation of the Soviet Union was contradictory and encouraged in his recommendational report to solve these problems by means of consistent integration policy and social dialogue.
Diene viewed the situation of the Russian-speaking minority, non-European immigrants and Roma people.
The special rapporteur said that there should be an open and democratic debate on the issue of language policy, with representatives of ethnic minorities and human rights organizations involved in it so the language policy would more correspond to Estonia‘s multilingual society.
Diene also underlined that two principles would serve as guidelines in language policy. First, the Estonian government has the legitimate right to spread the Estonian language among all the people living in the country and avoid bilingualism, which was characteristic of the Soviet occupation period. But the state must admit the existence of minority languages.
The rapporteur referred to the declaration of the rights of minorities, according to which countries must take measures so people belonging to minorities would have adequate opportunities of studying and getting instructions in their native language.
In the opinion of the special rapporteur the issue of stateless persons is waiting for a solution and this requires the government’s increased attention.
Diene recommended that the government revise the terms of granting citizenship to stateless persons. In his opinion the government should simplify citizenship procedures for the more vulnerable groups of residents, such as the elderly and least privileged people. Besides, free language courses should be made available for citizenship applicants. The rapporteur pointed out that this had been foreseen in the integration program for the years 2008-2013.
Diene also recommended granting automatic Estonian citizenship to chilren born after August 20, 1991. Under the present law parents of such children must submit an application to get citizenship for their child.
The ministry stated that the problem was also under the constant attention of the Estonian government and last year more than 4,000 people were granted Estonian citizenship.
Besides, Estonia is about to adopt an integration program for the period of 2008-2013, which has the aim of keeping the increase in the number of citizens.
Margus Kolga, director of the first political department at the Estonian Foreign Ministry, spoke on behalf of Estonia in Geneva.
“It is pleasing that the special rapporteur has approached the topic in a balanced way and has taken into consideration the historical context that has influenced Estonia,” Kolga said.
Doudou Diene, the United Nationms special rapporteur on racisism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, visited Estonia at the end of last September and created contradictory opinions by his views.
At a press conference at the conclusion of his visit to Estonia the special rapporteur said among other things that Estonia should move in the direction of a multicultural and multilingual society.
He added that the status of the Russian language did not currently correspond to the proportion of the minority in the Estonian population. Diene said that in his opinion Russian should be one of the official languages and also other languages could apply for official language status.
He also said that the language requirements at the granting of citizenship were discriminating and recommended revision of the whole process of the granting of citizenship.
Foreign Ministry Deputy Secretary General Harri Tiido then said that the special rapporteur saw the picture somewhat one-sidedly.
“I would said that his postition was expressed in a conversation between us that all who are in the minority have rights. But that much less he can see that also the majority has rights,” Tiido said.
Later some Estonian politicians, for example Education and Science Minister Tonis Lukas from the Pro Patria and Res Publica Union, met with him, explaining to him Estonian history and positions and disproving several of his erroneous opinions.
“I explained to the special rapporteur facts connected with the development of the Estonian society, including why Estonia has one official language and why we are not planning to change this,” Lukas said in October.
The minister added that the special rapporteur inquired how the state financed the edcuation of Russian and other ethnic minorities.
“He had the erroneous impression that financing of the Estonian and Russian-speaking student places was not taking place on an equal basis,” Lukas said. “I disproved those opinions and explained the actual situation to him on the basis of examples.”
Tallinn newsroom, +372 610 8861, [email protected]
