Estonia

The Republic of Estonia lies on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. To the west it borders the Baltic Sea, to the north the Gulf of Finland, to the east the Russian Federation and to the south the Republic of Latvia. Its territory consists of more than 2,000 islands.

Estonia no longer formally claims territories in the Narva and Pechora regions of the Russian Federation amounting to more than 2,000 square kilometres, even though these territories had been within the borders of Estonia under that 1920 Tartu Peace Treaty, approved by the Russian government at the time. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, a definitive border treaty has yet to be completed. One was signed in May 2005, but then the talks failed after Riigikogu (Estonian Parliament) passed the treaties in the following month after adding a preamble to the bill that the Russian government interpreted to legitimize future territorial claims and withdrew its signature in June 2005. Negotiations on the treaty between the two States resumed in 2013, and the foreign ministers eventually signed the agreements in Moscow on 18 February 2014. The two sides are yet to conclude the ratification process.

History

The origins of the Estonian state go back to the period when the Baltic pagan tribes inhabited the region of what was called ‘Livonia’, comprising the territory of present-day Latvia and southern Estonia. The German crusades converted the tribes into Christianity at the end of the 12^th century in the territory of present-day Latvia. However, Estonians managed to fight the German invasion with the active support of Russian princes, who retained interests in the area. The German crusaders, the Order of the Brothers of the Sword, requested assistance from the Danes, who conquered Estonian territory in 1220. Since the 13^th century Estonian territories were dominated by Danes, Germans, Poles, Swedes and Russians.

Estonia only established itself as a modern sovereign nation-state in 2018. However, from the very beginning, Estonians had to fight for independence against the expansionist ambitions of both Germany and Bolshevik Russia. Germany gave up its ambitions for the Baltic region under the Peace Treaty between the Allied Powers and Germany. Here, in Article 433 Germany was not permitted to claim land resources in the Baltic States previously awarded to Germany under the Brest-Litovsk Agreement, the hastily brokered treaty between Bolshevik Russia and Germany that ended the war between Russia and Germany in 1918 so that Bolshevik forces could focus on ending the Russian Civil War. This treaty permitted Germany to use Baltic lands for their military advances into the West. Russia’s aspirations for the Estonian territories were abolished when the Estonian War of Independence ended with the signing of the Tartu Peace Treaty in 1920. In this treaty Soviet Russia renounced all claims on the sovereign rights of Estonia. The country’s first Constitution was proclaimed in June 1920. A year later, Estonia became a member of the League of Nations, a predecessor of the United Nations.

Considering the ethnic composition of Estonia’s population, the question of minority rights preoccupied the Estonia’s constitution makers. The Constitution of Estonia guaranteed mother tongue instruction to national minorities and promised them control over their own schooling and cultural life. Under the provisions of the Estonian Constitution, national minorities in Estonia could form corresponding autonomous institutions to promote the interests of their culture as long as it is not contrary to the interest of the State.[1]  Even before the Estonian Constitution was created, the Elementary School Law and the Secondary School Law obligated the Government and the local authorities to maintain minority schools on the same basis as schools in which the instruction was given in the Estonian language. Many Estonian state universities taught in three different languages: Estonian, Russian and German.

However, this relatively progressive treatment of its minorities was undermined by the rise of authoritarianism in the Baltic States during the 1930s. With a state of emergency declared and the Constitution suspended, minority rights were fatally undermined. Among other developments, the use of Estonian became necessary for place names and in government business. However, this process of linguistic nationalism was interrupted as a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939 between Nazi Germany and Soviet Union, which allocated Estonia as Soviet territory. Following the Soviet Army’s invasion, the first ethnic population transfers took place from 1939 to 1941. Under the terms provided in the secret pact, tens of thousands of Baltic Germans were repatriated to Germany from the Baltic States, while Germany transferred Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusian, and Lithuanians from the German-controlled territories.

In August 1940 Estonia was incorporated it into the Soviet Union. The Soviet regime arrested and killed thousands of Estonians and deported tens of thousands more. The entire Estonian political and social infrastructure was destroyed and replaced with Soviet institutions. Western states never recognized the incorporation of the Baltic States into the USSR. After Hitler’s Germany attacked the Soviet Union, Nazi forces occupied Estonia from 1941 to 1944. During this period, much of the remaining Jewish population – some had already been deported to Siberia by Soviet authorities before the invasion – was eliminated. Several hundred Jews were deported in June 1941 during the German occupation, and another 1,000 who had failed to flee were murdered. A few thousand Estonians of Swedish origin, who mostly lived in offshore islands, were evacuated to Sweden in 1943-1944. In 1944 the Soviets again took over. As a result of deportations, war, mobilization and mass emigration, Estonia had lost around a quarter of its pre-war population by 1945.

In 1945, Estonians formed about 95 per cent of the population, considering the loss of the territories in Narva and Pechora regions to Russia, that were mostly inhabited by Russians. Forced population exchanges also took place under Stalin. These measures were carried out from 1944 to 1952 and were more thorough than the ones of 1940-1941. Thousands of affluent independent farmers, also known at the time as the kulaks, were evicted from their farms and sent to labour camps in Siberia. The total number of individuals deported from Estonia between 1944 and 1952 has been estimated at around 124,000. Not only ethnic Estonians were the targets of Soviet repression, but also members of minorities including Russians.

The central Soviet authorities introduced heavy industry requiring a new workforce and brought hundreds of thousands of people into the country from central Russia, the Ukraine and Belarus. The influx of Russian-speaking communities produced cultural russification. Russian language became popularised in the schooling system around 1959, which implied that native speakers were pressured to become bilingual, whereas immigrant communities were not encouraged to acquire proficiency in Estonian. This sustained process of immigration led to a marked demographic shift in the decades after the war, with the proportion of ethnic Estonians in the population falling to 61.5 per cent by 1989.

Mikhail Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) offered an opportunity for democratic forces to begin protesting environmental damage, forced industrialization, russification and the repression of Estonian national culture. The Estonian Supreme Soviet declared sovereignty in November 1988.  On 30 March 1990, the Supreme Soviet declared a transitional period towards independence and validity of Soviet power was denied. A year later, 77.8 per cent of participants in the Estonian independence referendum voted in favour of independence. Then in August 1991, Estonia issued a declaration on the re-establishment of its independence. After protracted negotiations, the armed forces of the Russian Federation withdrew from Estonia in August 1994, although a number of demobilized Russian officers remained in the country.

However, policies adopted in the mid-1990s excluded large numbers of the Russian-speaking population from automatic citizenship and had long-term effects for their political representation. One example is the Citizenship Act of November 1991 that was introduced by the Supreme Soviet, stating that only persons who had been citizens of Estonia prior to 1940, and their descendants, were eligible to gain Estonian citizenship. The final resolution followed in February 1992 with the re-enactment of the 1938 Citizenship Act, which remained in effect for the next three years. The immediate effect was the exclusion of the majority of non-Estonians as well as a small number of ethnic Estonians from gaining citizenship.

Since independence Estonia has developed into a fully functioning democracy. In 1992, the Government of Estonia invited an OSCE Expert Mission to study Estonian legislation and assess its compatibility with existing human rights norms. In 1993, Estonia became a member of the Council of Europe. It has held multiple elections deemed free and fair by international observers, resulting in the peaceful transfer of power between different ruling elites. Estonia’s active integration with Euro-Atlantic institutions culminated in March 2004 with Estonia’s accession to NATO, and in May 2004 with membership in the European Union. The OSCE mission to Estonia, in place since 1993, closed at the end of 2001. This reduced international leverage over Estonia.

Governance

After regaining independence, the new Estonian Constitution was adopted by a referendum in the summer of 1992, during which almost one third of the country’s population could not participate in the vote due to their ‘undetermined citizenship’ or ‘non-citizen’ status. Nonetheless, the wording of the Constitution prohibits discrimination based on nationality, race, colour, sex, language, origin, religion, political or other beliefs in Article 12. It guarantees the same fundamental rights to Estonian citizens and non-citizens alike in Article 9. It provides for the right to assemble freely under Article 47 but excludes non-citizens from belonging to political parties under Article 48, although they may form non-profit associations. The Constitution limits participation in national elections and referendums to only Estonian citizens under Article 56, therefore, excluding people with ‘undetermined citizenship’ or ‘non-citizen’ status from participating in public affairs at a national level.

While the Constitution recognizes only Estonian as the official language of the republic, several guarantees on minority language use are ensured in the text of the Constitution. Article 37 ensures the language of teaching in national minority educational institutions is chosen by the educational institution itself. Article 50 permits national minorities to have the right to establish self-governing agencies under the procedure of the National Minorities Cultural Autonomy Act. Article 51 guarantees in areas where one half of the permanent residents belong to a national minority to receive responses from government agencies, local authorities and their officials also in the language of the national minority. Article 52 ensures the option to extend the use of the language of the majority of the permanent residents of the locality as their internal working language of the local authority; and to use foreign languages, including languages of national minorities, in government agencies, in courts and pre-trial procedure is provided by law. Article 156 provides that non-citizens may take part in the local elections. However, the 2007 amendments to the Preamble of the Constitution put more emphasis on the preservation of the Estonian people, the Estonian language and the Estonian culture, rather than promotion of all people, languages and cultures in Estonia.

The 1993 Law on Election of a Local Government Council and its amendments permitted resident non-citizens and nationals of other states who have lived in Estonia for five years to vote, but not to run for office in the local elections.  This permission was repeated in the Local Government Council Elections Act in May 1996. But the 1996 Law introduced strict language requirements for public sector posts. However, due to international pressure, language proficiency requirements for candidates standing for local and national elections were abolished in November 2001, as they were deemed inconsistent with international law. Since 1991, there have usually been between six and eight minority members out of 101 in the Estonian parliament (Riigikogu), despite the fact that many minority candidates have joined broader political parties rather than community organizations in order to represent minority interests within mainstream political parties and have entered the parliament on those lists.

Citizenship Laws

The Citizenship Act of November 1991 prevented individuals with ‘undetermined citizenship’ status from participating in the 28 June 1992 referendums on the country’s new Constitution and the extension of voting rights to applicants for Estonian citizenship. Russians and others who came to Estonia after 16 June 1940, forming almost one third of the entire population, were automatically excluded from Estonian citizenship. The only way for them to become citizens was through naturalization. However, as a requirement for naturalization, the applicant had to have his or her permanent place of residence in the Estonian territory for two years before and one year after the application date and had to prove their knowledge of the Estonian language. Thus, the earliest date that one could acquire citizenship was 30 March 1993. Furthermore, these individuals with ‘undetermined citizenship’ were also excluded from the first parliamentary elections in the independent Estonian Republic that took place in September 1992. It is therefore not surprising that the composition of the first national legislature (Riigikogu) was entirely made up of ethnic Estonians. In June 1993, the Estonian Aliens Act was adopted, which classified all non-citizens as ‘aliens’ and required them to apply for residency and work permits within two years (not five as in the previous version) if they wished to remain in the country, and to apply for Estonian, Russian and other citizenship or an alien’s passport if they wanted to travel abroad.

In January 1995, the Riigikogu passed the new Citizenship Act that brought all citizenship-related regulations into one document, and subsequent amendments in 2015 have introduced more inclusive provisions. Under Articles 13(4) and 36 children under 15 years of age born in Estonia to persons of undetermined citizenship will receive citizenship by naturalization at birth if the parent or parents meet the relevant criteria and do not decline Estonian citizenship for their child within one year. Another provision under Article 34 eased the language examination for applicants who are 65 years of age or older. Finally, under amendments to Article 3 children were allowed to hold multiple citizenships until the age of 21: upon reaching that age they have to decide which citizenship they wish to keep.

Language Laws

With the introduction of the Constitutional amendment on 6 December 1988 Estonian became the only official language of Estonia. Shortly after, the Language Law was passed in January 1989 that also declared Estonian as the sole official language but left room for certain minority languages in order to facilitate effective transformation. For example, some positions temporarily required knowledge of both Estonian and Russian, and the 1989 Language Law left four years for individuals in government posts to acquire language proficiency in Estonian. This law was in force until the adoption of a new Language Law of 1995.

The 1995 Language Law affirmed the position of Estonian language but labelled all minority languages as ‘foreign’ under Article 2. Furthermore, in addition to being ‘foreign’, under Article 2(2) the language of a national minority was considered to be the mother tongue of only Estonian citizens who belonged to a national minority. Therefore, this wording excluded the individuals with ‘undetermined citizenship’ status or foreign nationals, which formed around one-third of the population at the beginning of the re-gained independence period.

Article 5 introduced that the Government of Estonia will control the requirements of Estonian language and usage of Estonian language by employees of state institutions and local governments. Article 7 demanded employees of state institutions to have knowledge of Estonian language with the requirements determined by the government, even if they worked in local governments where language of a national minority was the internal working language permitted under Article 11. Article 10 allowed individuals living in areas where at least half of the permanent residents formed a national minority to receive replies in the language of this national minority, as well in Estonian, from state institutions which operate in the territory. Article 14 permitted the use of minority languages within cultural autonomy bodies. Article 29 introduced amendments to the 1993 Law on Local Government Organization that permitted the use of minority languages in local governments where the territory is mostly inhabited by a national minority to conduct minutes of the sessions of the Council with Estonian-language translation.

Following amendments in 2016, the Language Act reasserted its applicability to the use of Estonian and foreign languages in administration, public information and service. Article 2(2) still includes national minority languages in the foreign languages category and is realized in compliance with other acts and international agreements. Article 5(2) once more emphasizes the foreign nature of minority languages. Article 5(3) describes a person belonging to a national minority as an Estonian citizen who is different from Estonians by the command of language.

The guarantee to hold correspondence in a minority language is reaffirmed and clarified in the wording of the Language Act in Articles 9 and 12. Article 9 allows everyone in local governments where at least half of the permanent residents belong to a national minority, to access and receive responses in the language of national minority alongside Estonian. In any other cases, under Article 12(1) government agencies may require the individual to translate the submission into Estonian. Article 11 also, as in the previous version of the Act, allows local governments, where most of the permanent residents are non-Estonian speakers, to apply for using minority language as the internal public administration language.

The Language Act also now includes provisions on proficiency in and use of the Estonian language by public sector employees in Chapter 5. Therefore, while national minority language rights have been reaffirmed, strict language requirements have also been introduced. This approach is also reflected in the activities of the Language Inspectorate, which can issue fines for violations of the Language Act. The Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities has expressed its concern over the penalizing approach, which is not conductive to generating a positive environment around learning Estonian.

Like other Baltic states, Estonia emerged from decades of Soviet rule with a diverse population that includes sizeable minorities of ethnic Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians and other groups. However, following its regained independence, a range of policies were passed in Estonia during the 1990s that led to the creation of a sizeable number of ‘non-citizens’ or persons with ‘undetermined citizenship’, drawn overwhelmingly from the country’s ethnic minority populations. A key underlying issue is that post-Soviet Estonian independence is officially understood in Estonia in terms of ‘restoration’, rather than the creation of a new state: this policy was used to justify the awarding of automatic citizenship only to pre-1940 citizens and their descendants, a process aimed at securing the demographic and political pre-eminence of ethnic Estonians against the large numbers of post-war immigrants, mostly Russian speakers.

Access to Estonian citizenship has been relaxed to some extent since then, in particular for newly born children of stateless parents or parents with ‘undetermined citizenship’ status known as non-citizens or aliens, for children under 15 years of age being born to parents with non-citizen status, and for persons older than 65 years of age. Despite this, however, the problem persists: UNHCR mapping of statelessness in Estonia found that there were an estimated 82,561 (6.1 per cent of the total population) ‘persons with undetermined citizenship’ as of the end of 2015. Although, the proportion of the Estonian population with this status has reduced dramatically over time, the ‘undetermined citizenship’ status is still predominantly held by minorities. This is evident from official data from 2017, which shows that 0.2 per cent of ethnic Estonians hold the ‘non-citizen’ status, compared to 19 per cent of all of ethnic Russians and 23 per cent of ethnic Ukrainians.

Furthermore, the Estonian government views the term ‘national minority’ as referring to citizens of the Estonian Republic only. This is further confirmed in the declaration made by Estonia on signing the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, in which it states the only citizens of the state can be categorized as national minorities. Therefore, ‘non-citizens’ are excluded from officially belonging to a national minority group. At the same time, language policies in Estonia have become stricter. Strong legislative provisions designed to promote the Estonian language and guarantee its use in all areas of public life, despite the multilingual composition of the country’s population, remain cornerstones of Estonia’s public policy. Furthermore, the area of minority language education forms another component of the issue relating to the use of minority languages. Since 2007, Estonian has been the main language of instruction in upper-secondary minority language schools, which are mostly Russian-speaking, with 60 per cent of the curriculum taught in Estonian and 40 per cent taught in the minority language. However, problems around issues such as the lack of qualified teachers or suitable teaching manuals for instructing children who are non-Estonian speakers have at times proved challenging.

Together, these citizenship and language requirements have constrained the opportunities of minorities to participate in Estonia’s public life. Only citizens of Estonia are allowed to vote and be elected at national elections, leaving non-citizens only able to vote in local elections without the ability to stand as candidate for local posts. Non-citizens are not permitted to join or form political parties. Language requirements for public sector posts a both a local and national level are thoroughly investigated by the Language Inspectorate, affecting the employment prospects of members of minorities in not only the public sphere but also in the private sector.

Estonia also has an indigenous Seto population, primarily residing in the territories of what is now south-east Estonia and north-west Russia. But while in Russia Seto are recognized as a small indigenous people, in Estonia their status has not been formally recognized, despite their self-identification. With a total population of between 10,000 and 13,000, of whom roughly a quarter live in Setomaa, their traditional territory, Seto have a unique identity sustained by their own language, heritage and identity. An example of this is Seto polyphonic leelo singing, a tradition included on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s global list of intangible cultural heritage. However, an ongoing challenge for the community is the fact that their traditional territory also extends into neighbouring areas of Russia, leaving them divided by border restrictions that have intensified as relations between the two countries have deteriorated. As securing visas to enter Russia has become more difficult, many Seto living in the border areas have been pushed to migrate elsewhere, leaving some settlements with just a small fraction of their former populations.

General

• Association of Turkish and Caucasian Nations in Europe
• Estonian Institute for Human Rights
• Estonian Union for Illegally Repressed People (Memento)
• Estonian Union of National Minorities
• Jaan Tönisson Institute
• Jewish Congregation in Estonia
• Legal Information Centre for Human Rights

Ukrainians and Belarusians

• Ukrainian World Congress