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ACFC/SR/II (2004) 009 SECOND REPORT SUBMITTED BY ESTONIA PURSUANT TO ARTICLE 25, PARAGRAPH 1 OF THE FRAMEWORK CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES (Received on 16 July 2004) ESTONIA’S SECOND REPORT ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE FRAMEWORK CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES JUNE 2004 2 Introduction The Republic of Estonia signed the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities on 2 February 1995 and it entered into force in respect of Estonia on 1 February 1998. On 22 December 1999 the Republic of Estonia submitted its first report on the implementation of the requirements of the Framework Convention. The Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities paid a visit to Estonia from 29 May until 1 June 2001. The delegation of the Advisory Committee met with the representatives of the Government and the Riigikogu, NGOs and other experts with the aim to obtain information about the implementation of the requirements of the Convention in Estonia. The opinion of the Advisory Committee with regard to Estonia was adopted on 14 September 2001. The Council of Europe Committee of Ministers passed the decision on the implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in Estonia on 13 June 2002. The Estonian Government highly appreciates the dialogue with the Advisory Committee and efforts are also made to inform the public about the rights and duties enshrined in the Convention. The opinion of the Advisory Committee and the Government’s comments have been translated into Estonian and are available on the homepage of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs1. Following the positive example of other countries, the Government published the Advisory Committee’s opinion with comments before the adoption of the relevant decision by the Committee of Ministers. The second report on the implementation of the Convention has also been published on the homepage of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs both in Estonian and English. As the previous report was drafted mainly in English, it was available to the public only in English. In this respect, the recommendations of the Advisory Committee that the public should be able to read the report in Estonian were taken into account. In this regard, the whole practice of submitting reports has changed, as in the future all reports on the implementation of conventions submitted to different organisations will be published on the homepage of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs both in Estonian and English. The previous report and the relevant recommendations were introduced to the public at the seminar on “National minorities in Estonian society: equal treatment and integration”, held in Tallinn on 26 September 2002. The seminar was organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Council of Europe Tallinn Information Office and the Council of Europe. The public was informed of the activities relating to the protection of national minorities and integration carried out by Estonian government agencies and various organisations and of the assessments and recommendations in respect of Estonia given in different Council of Europe reports. Attending the seminar was also Rainer Hofmann, the President of the Advisory Committee of the Convention. The seminar held in Estonia was the second of its kind. The first seminar had been held in Helsinki the same year. Today, organising of such seminars is widespread in the member states of the Convention. 1 http://web-static.vm.ee/static/failid/152/2001cm159.pdf http://web-static.vm.ee/static/failid/212/en_ministrite_komitee_arvamus.doc 3 According to Article 25 (2) of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and Rule 21 of Resolution (97) 10 of the Committee of Ministers, each Contracting Party shall transmit to the Secretary General on a periodical basis any further information on the implementation of the Framework Convention. Currently the second period of submitting reports is underway. In drawing up its second report, the Estonian Government has taken into account the guidelines for writing reports adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 15 January 2003 and the questions addressed to Estonia by the Advisory Committee. To enable a better understanding of the report and the topics covered in it, the information requested by the Advisory Committee has been presented article by article, and, where possible, also the answers to some of the Advisory Committee’s questions have been presented under the articles dealing with the relevant topic (questions 1 and 7). In addition, attention has been paid to the Committee of Ministers resolution of 13 June 2002 and the opinion adopted by the Advisory Committee on 14 September 2002. The report was drawn up by the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in cooperation with various other ministries, government agencies, NGOs and societies of national minorities. Criticism of the Advisory Committee to the effect that in the previous report much information was provided on legislation but insufficient information on the practical implementation of the Convention was also taken into account. The committee also criticised the Government that some national minorities in the report were dealt with superficially. As much as possible, an attempt was made to cover these topics in more detail in the new report. An attempt was also made to involve, as much as possible, more non-governmental organisations in the drafting of the report in addition to government agencies. Societies uniting national minorities were asked to forward information about their activities and various problems they have, and they were also sent the questions of the Advisory Committee, with a translation into Estonian, for information and for possible comments. Meetings were held with the representatives of some national cultural societies where the representatives of the societies gave an overview of their activities and presented their views on the situation of national minorities in Estonia and outlined the factors that affect the functioning of their societies. In Appendix 5 to the Convention, there is a list of organisations that were contacted for information and comments. The Government would hereby like to express gratitude to all societies uniting national minorities and to all other non-governmental organisations that were willing to cooperate and significantly contributed to the drafting of this Report. 4 Article 1 The protection of national minorities and of the rights and freedoms of persons belonging to those minorities forms an integral part of the international protection of human rights, and as such falls within the scope of international co-operation. Estonia has cooperated with various international organisations for carrying out a review of its legislation and bringing it in compliance with international human rights norms. For example, OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, Max van der Stoel, was consulted about the compliance of certain provisions of the Language Act with international norms. There was also close cooperation with the OSCE in preparing the amendments to the election laws, by which the language requirements for candidates were omitted from the law. An important role was played by international cooperation and foreign financing in the implementation of the State Integration Programme and in language learning. In these matters, Estonia has received significant assistance from the European Union as well as governments of various states. Assistance has been provided by the Governments of Finland, Sweden, United Kingdom, Canada, Norway and Denmark. Since 1996 the European Commission has supported the Estonian language learning and the integration of persons belonging to national minorities in Estonia with approximately 156 million Estonian kroons. Assistance has also been received through several programmes. PHARE language learning programmes The main objective of the first European Union PHARE Estonian language training programme was supporting of Estonian language learning of non-Estonians. For activities carried out in the framework of the programme in 1999-2000, 22 million kroons were spent. For supporting the second Estonian language learning programme in 2001-2003, 49.1 million kroons were allocated. The objective of the second programme was supporting of social integration, by increasing the number of non-Estonians attending the Estonian language courses, as well as the number of citizenship applicants and people passing the Estonian language proficiency examination and raising the awareness of multicultural society in Estonia. Currently, the European Union PHARE programme “Learning of the Estonian language and Estonian language tuition for non-Estonian speaking population” is underway. The programme is aimed at supporting the Estonian language learning of non-Estonian speaking population and the integration of the whole Estonian society. The European Union has allocated 51.6 million kroons for these purposes. The duration of the programme is 2003-2005 and it is implemented by the Ministry of Education and Research and the PHARE 2003 administrative unit under the Integration Foundation. PHARE economic and social accession programme In 2001-2002, several projects were developed in regions that have a significant proportion of minorities. Through the projects carried out in recent years, support has been given to the development of economy and the human resource
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