Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) _______________________________________ Report submitted by Estonia pursuant to Article 68, paragraph 1 of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Baseline Report) Received by GREVIO on 30 April 2021 GREVIO/Inf(2021)3 Published on 3 May 2021 First report by Estonia on legislative and other measures giving effect to the provisions of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention) March 2021 Table of contents I. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 4 II. Integrated policies and data collection ............................................................................ 5 2.1. Strategies and action plans ........................................................................................ 5 2.2. Allocation of financial resources ................................................................................. 8 2.3. Civil society support .................................................................................................. 10 2.4. Official bodies for coordination, implementation and evaluation of policies ............... 11 2.5. Data collection .......................................................................................................... 12 2.6. Research and surveys .............................................................................................. 14 III. Prevention .................................................................................................................... 17 3.1. Campaigns and programmes .................................................................................... 17 3.2. Teaching materials in formal education .................................................................... 20 3.3. Professionals initial training ...................................................................................... 21 3.4. In-service training of professionals............................................................................ 24 3.5. Programmes for perpetrators of domestic violence ................................................... 27 3.6. Programmes for sex offenders .................................................................................. 28 IV. Protection and support ................................................................................................. 32 4.1. Support services and legal measures ....................................................................... 32 4.2. General support services .......................................................................................... 32 4.3. Information about collective complaints mechanisms (including legal advice) offered at regional or international level ........................................................................................... 33 V. Substantive law ............................................................................................................ 38 5.1. Legal framework ....................................................................................................... 38 5.2. Guidance on the implementation of the framework ................................................... 38 5.5. Custody and visitation rights of children .................................................................... 40 5.6. Criminalisation of certain forms of violence ............................................................... 40 5.7. Legislation against sexual harassment, as defined in Article 40. ............................... 41 5.8. Aiding or abetting ...................................................................................................... 41 5.9. Attempts (Article 41, paragraph 2) ............................................................................ 41 5.10. Unacceptable justifications for crimes ..................................................................... 41 5.11. Application of criminal offences in relationship of the perpetrator to the victim ........ 42 5.12. Sanctions ................................................................................................................ 42 5.13. Aggravating circumstances ..................................................................................... 43 5.14. Mandatory alternative dispute resolution processes................................................ 44 5.15. Administrative and judicial data .............................................................................. 44 VI. Investigation, prosecution and procedural law and protective measures ...................... 47 6.1. Measures to ensure a prompt and appropriate response from law enforcement agencies to all forms of violence ...................................................................................... 47 6.2. Procedures to ensure that an assessment of the lethality ......................................... 47 6.3. Emergency barring order (prohibition on stay) .......................................................... 47 2 6.4. Restraining or protection orders ................................................................................ 48 6.5. Administrative and judicial data ................................................................................ 49 6.6. Legal proceedings ex officio ..................................................................................... 49 6.7. Legal proceedings ex parte....................................................................................... 49 6.8. NGOs or other civil society actors and domestic violence counsellors to assist or support victims ................................................................................................................ 49 6.9. Available measures of protection .............................................................................. 50 6.10. Free legal aid for women victims............................................................................. 51 6.11. Other investigation, prosecution, procedural law and protective measures ............ 51 VII. Migration and asylum ................................................................................................. 53 Annex 1. Special training on violence against women for service providers ........................ 55 Annex 2. In-service training ................................................................................................. 56 Annex 3. Extracts of the relevant legal texts ........................................................................ 57 3 I. Introduction 1. Estonia signed the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, the Istanbul Convention, on the 2nd of December 2014. Estonia ratified the Convention on the 26th of October 2017, and the Convention entered into force in the 1st of February 2018. 2. National legislation is considered to be in accordance with the Istanbul Convention. As preparation and part of ratification process, the Penal Code, the Aliens Act, the Victim Support Act, the Code of Criminal Procedure were amended. Estonia made no reservation in connection of ratification of Convention. 3. According to the article 2 of the Ratification Act of the Convention1, the Ministry of Justice is responsible for co-ordinating the Istanbul Convention in Estonia. However, the implementation of the Convention and work preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence is implemented by various state institutions as the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Education and Research, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with their subordinate authorities (the Estonian Forensic Science Institute, prosecutor’s offices, the Police and Border Guard Board, the Estonian National Social Insurance Board, the National Institute for Health Development) in cooperation with non-governmental organisations, local governments and their representative organisations, healthcare and educational institutions and their employee associations as well as entrepreneurship organisations and others. 4. The monitoring mechanism, GREVIO, requested Estonia to submit its first baseline report by 31 March 2021 as part of the evaluation process of Estonia. This report follows the chapter division of the Convention and the GREVIO questionnaire. 5. First state report on implementation of the Istanbul Convention in Estonia was prepared under the coordination of the Ministry of Justice and in cooperation with several partners. The baseline report consists of contributions from governmental agencies as the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Education and Research, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Social Insurance Board, Police and Border Guard Board, State Prosecution Office. The input to the report was also received by the University of Tartu, Tallinn Health College, NGO Estonian Institute for Open Society Research, the Judicial Training Department of the Supreme Court of Estonia and the others. In addition, this report includes information also from the field studies, strategies reports, ongoing projects and regular cooperation discussions held in violence prevention network.