Amendments to the Law on Language, Estonia

To: [email protected]
Date: Sun, 07 Dec 1997 12:47:01 -0800
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Subject: Amendments to the Law on Language, Estonia

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

Original sender: Andrei Arjupin <[email protected]>
 
Amendments to the Law on Language, Estonia


New Language Restrictions in Estonia
 
19th November 1997 the Parliament of the Estonian Republic adopted the
amendments to the Law on Language which have established restrictions of
the right to vote in the Estonian Republic. 45 members of the Parliament
voted for the amendments, only 6 Russian deputies were against. 
 
The adopted changes in the Law on Language establish the requirements of
knowledge of the state language and the list of the persons and legal
entities which should meet these requirements. Among them:
 
a) Members of the Parliament;
b) Members of local governments;
c) Workers and employees of commercial and nonprofit associations;
d) Employees of NGOs.
 
Besides, one of the amendments establishes a special governmental
institution to deal with the control and examination of level of the
language skills.
 
The abovementioned amendments do not comply with the international
standards and instruments in the field of the human rights. They limit
the rights and interests of national and linguistic minorities in
Estonia.
 
It is clear that requirement for the language examination for the
members of the Estonian Parliament and local governments contradicts
the content of Article 25 of the UN International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, 1966 (ICCPR), and Article 29 of the Constitution of
the Estonian Republic. As for employees of commercial and nonprofit
associations and NGOs, language limitations violate the rules of Article
19 of the ICCPR and Article 10 of the European Convention on Protection
of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, 1950 (ECHR).
 
Moreover, the accepted amendments to the Law on Language infringe the
provisions of Article 17 of the ICCPR and Article 8 of the ECHR - the 
right to respect for private life and also Article 49 of the
Constitution of the Estonian Republic (CER) - the right to preserve
his/her ethnic identity. As for the issue of the acceptance of these
norms we will have the anticonstitutional abridgment of the rights of
the Estonian citizens (and foreigners living in the country) to freely
select occupation, profession or the place of work (CER, Article 29).
Besides, the rights to engage in commercial activities and to form
profit-making associations and leagues (CER, Article 31) are also
threateaned.
 
According to Article 11 of the CER, human rights and liberties may be
restricted only in accordance with the Constitution. Such restrictions
should be reasonable and should not distort the nature of the restricted
rights and freedom in a democratic society. In given case we deal with
obvious discrimination of the persons on the language ground. It is
inadmissible according to Article 12 of the Constitution of the Estonian
Republic and part 1 Article 2 of the ICCPR.
 
In addition the Estonian Parliament do not follow the provisions of
Article 4 and Article 15 of the Council of Europe's Framework Convention
for the Protection of National Minorities (1994). Parliament has not
taken into consideration provisions, which were proclaimed by the UN
Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic,
Religious and Linguistic Minorities, 1992 (for example, Article 2).
 
At the time when in the world community the tendency of prohibition of
discrimination in the area of language preferences is receiving more
recognition, the authorities of Estonia at a legislative level are
abridging either the right to vote of the citizens of Estonia of
non-Estonian background, or the essential right to free choice of
employment. Although the interpretation of this aspect of the right of
non-discrimination in the international law is still going through a
process of clarification, there is increasing support for the view
that the state should take into account the need to balance it's
legitimate interests and goals in cases when it establishes preferences,
as consequence of which is disadvantaging of status of the persons
belonging to minorities. The adopted amendments become a means of
displacement of the members of ethnic and linguistic minorities from the
sphere of political life and employment.

On 5 December 1997, the President of Estonian Republic Mr. Lennart Meri
refused to proclaim the given amendments to the Law on Language. Again
Mr. Lennart Meri shows his responsibility as guarantor for the
constitutional rights and freedoms of the Estonian people, including
ethnic and linguistic minorities, providing thus democratic grounds of
Estonian society.
 
Andrei Arjupin

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