Max van der Stoel
OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities
Prinsossegracht 22
2500 EB- The Hague - The Netherlands
P.0. Box 20062

Tallinn
04 June 1997

Dear Mr. Max van der Stoel,

Thank you very much for your May 21, 1997 letter. I found our discussions during your visit in early April most inspiring and I'm glad to see that so did you. I highly value the profoundness of analysis performed in your letter. I'm also pleased at the earnestness and energy you devote to my country. It is very important for us that you consider the development in Estonia positive and the outcome of public opinion surveys on inter-ethnic relations encouraging. I would like to assure you that the successful integration of non- Estonians into our society and through it into Europe is a firm aim of my government. It is very motivating that you so highly appreciate our efforts made thus far.

You have raised many important issues for Estonia in your 21 May 1997 letter. Namely, the issue of distribution of aliens' passports, the draft law on Ombudsman and the question of giving top priority to language training, as well as the questions of the constitutional test and citizenship of non-citizens children.

Nearly 150 000 persons have applied for the aliens' passports as specified by the Law on Aliens. By the date of expiration of former soviet passports May 15, 98 000 people had received aliens' passports. A wide-range media campaign was launched by Citizenship and Migration Board to inform the population about the expiration and about the importance of collecting their new passports. By now it could be said that the persons who desired aliens' passports have received them.

The problem of distribution of alien's passports is virtually solved by now and the only persons without passports are those who, in spite of an active information campaign, have failed to apply for or collect their documents.

After Soviet passports became invalid other official documents with photo identification are to be used instead to receive pensions and child benefit payments. For registering births and deaths the old Soviet internal passport may still be used.

The draft law on Ombudsman, currently under preparation in the Ministry of Justice, does not foresee any discriminatory provisions. All residents of Estonia will have a right to lodge a complaint, which I consider the only rightful way of doing it.

I can assure you that the Government of the Republic of Estonia does also agree with the necessity of giving a top priority to speeding up the issues concerning language training.

As you may know, a 6-member working group has been formed under the auspices of the Language Strategy Centre with the task of preparing a long-term language strategy policy paper. The members of the working group are experts in various fields including a demographer and a civics educator. The preliminary draft of the language strategy will soon be ready, at which time it will be submitted to the government for approval. The strategy will be the basis for: (1) proposed amendments in curricula, examinations, language standards, (2) co-ordinating the division of duties amongst institutions; (3) language programs and projects - initiation, evaluation, planning of foreign aid participation, financial allocation; (4) planning state budget resources.

In conjunction with the Language Strategy Centre and the Ministry of Education the EU-PHARE assistance of 1.4 mECU has been allocated to assist Estonia in implementing its language strategy - both through the standard school system and through adult education aimed at acquiring citizenship.

The Government has declared in its programme the integration of non-citizens into Estonian society through advanced language training as one of its key priorities. This means that state budget financing for language teaching will also be considerably increased.

Estonian is taught in all Russian-language secondary schools, but the Government decided to make another important step towards improving the quality of teaching Estonian as a foreign language. To stimulate with additional salary qualified teachers to apply for work in the Russian language area of northeast, the establishment of the status of a specially qualified state-language teacher will be introduced in the nearest future. This means the placement of one or two of these teachers in every Russian-language secondary school.

The Government has also planned, in order to encourage non-citizens to apply for Estonian citizenship, the establishment of an integration fund for compensating the costs of language studies. The compensation will be granted to successful applicants and thus make the language courses for people who take their studies seriously, free of charge.

During your last visit many issues were addressed, most specifically the issues of simplification of the constitutional exam and granting of citizenship to non- citizens' children on the basis of their parents application.

While compiling the 100-question exam the applicant's interests were of the utmost concern. It was agreed that while the test must not be unnecessarily difficult it must concentrate on issues, a new citizen would benefit from - primarily on the rights and obligations of a citizen.

Although the examination questions are published in the State Gazette and answers are freely available to the general public, and the passing rate is over 90%, the Government of Estonia, in order to make it even easier for applicants to comprehend, finds it very useful to continue discussions and improvements of the naturalisation test on the basis of your recommendations.

Examination of the data available in the European Documentation Centre on Nationality situated in the Council of Europe, which the Governments of the Member States have presented, has shown that European legislations on citizenship are far from being in alignment. Although some laws are in conformity with your recommendations regarding the granting of citizenship to children who are born in the country and would otherwise be stateless, the laws in a number of countries do not follow the principle of your recommendation. It can therefore not be argued that Estonian legislation in the present formulation is at variance with international practice or with practice in Council of Europe States. For example:

1. In Austria, according to Art. 14 of the Proclamation of 19.07.1985 prolonging the Code on Nationality, Austrian nationality has to be granted to an alien born in the territory of the Republic and who has been stateless since birth, after altogether ten years of regular residence, of which five years uninterrupted, preceding his naturalisation, if the request is filed after the age of 18 and not later than two years after majority.

2. In most of the Nordic countries, relevant legislation provides that if an alien does not have nationality of any country - a declaration (request for citizenship) may be made after the alien has attained the age of 18, if, when the declaration is made, he has resided in the country continuously for the last five years and has, moreover, lived in that country previously for periods amounting in the agregate to not less than five years. Such declaration cannot be made by a guardian or by the person having custody.

3. In the Federal Republic of Germany the new Aliens Act of 09.07.1990 does not make any distinction between stateless children born in Germany and children born in Germany with a foreign nationality. According to Art. 85 of the Act, an article adopted to facilitate the acquisition of German nationality by second or further generations of immigrants, a non-german applicant must be naturalised if he/she fulfils inter alia, the following conditions: being between 16 and 23 years of age, having lived lawfully in Germany for eight years and having been educated in Germany.

4. In Malta, according to Art. 3 (6) of Act nE XXIV ofOI.08.1989, a person shall be entitled, on making an application to the Minister in the prescribed manner, to be granted a certificate of naturalisation as a citizen of Malta, if he satisfies the Minister that he is and always has been stateless and a) that he was born in Malta b) -(not relevant)-. It is understood that the person making the application shall be of full age and of full capacity.

5. In The Netherlands, the relevant Act of 19.12.1984, section 3 (3) provides that a child shall be a Netherlands national if it is born to a father or mother who is residing in the Netherlands or the Netherlands Antilles at the time of its birth and who was born of a mother residing in one of these countries. This would seem to be a provision applicable only to third generation stateless persons, as, had the parents or the grandmother had Netherlands nationality themselves, other provisions of the article would apply.

6. In Switzerland the applicable rules are contained in the updated version of the Federal Law of 29.09.1952; they do not include any specific provisions on the status of children born to stateless persons. As the Swiss legislation on nationality, does not grant the mechanism to acquire Swiss citizenship, Switzerland made a reservation to article 7 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

According to our information, some countries have dealt with questions related to childrens' statelessness on an ad hoc basis and not changed their legislation.

It is difficult to accept singling out Estonian legislation as discriminatory. Moreover, even in countries where the legislation has been changed in the direction recommended, practice is not always consistent with your recommendations.

The position of the authorities of several EU member states is that children born in these countries to parents who were citizens of the former USSR are not considered to be stateless, as they have the possibility to acquire citizenship through a simple administrative procedure, namely registration to the citizenship of the Russian Federation, the successor state of the USSR.

Estonia is building its future as an integrated multiethnic society for decades to come. The government considers as its ultimate goal not just mere naturalisation of aliens, but integration of non-citizens and is therefore creating a wide range language training system. We consider communication between communities and thus learning the state language as one of the main mechanisms for integration. As you also recognise in your letter, 95% of non-citizens and 92,4% of Russian citizens agree or strongly agree that their children ought to learn Estonian. As children feel the same way, considering that children learn languages with an ease and the government has provided opportunities, they should have no difficulties in naturalisation through learning the language in a fast pace. According to our estimation, following of your recommendation might diminish the motivation of non-citizens to learn the state language and reduce their possibilities of integration into Estonian society.

IN CONCLUSION

- The Government of Estonia has already fulfilled 28 out of your 30 recommendations made during the whole period since 1993.

- The Government of Estonia is seriously considering your recommendation to simplify the constitutional test.

- Through constantly improving language training, the Government of Estonia has created a credible mechanism for children born in Estonia to acquire Estonian citizenship. However, the recommendation to grant citizenship to non-citizens' children born in the country, based only on the application of their parents, does not appear to be based neither on universal principles and obligations of the OSCE, nor on established common practice in OSCE Member States. If the recommendation reflected recognised international legal obligations it should be followed uniformly by all the Contracting Parties to the UN legal instruments referred to, and not be invoked only in respect of Estonia. Indeed, Estonia should not be singled out for having adopted a legislation, which, as regards the specific issue raised by you, does not differ from that of several other European States, also members of the OSCE and the Council of Europe. However, if this recommendation remains standing for Estonia, it should be made a general and universal principle of the OSCE. As international obligations are superior to Estonian internal legislation, Estonia would then certainly follow this principle.

These are my comments to the ideas and proposals reflected in your letter, dear High Commissioner. I look forward to continuing constructive cooperation between you and my government.

Yours sincerely,

Toomas Hendrik Ilves