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Estonia Analytical and advisory functions of the Estonian Human Rights Centre
  • Estonian Human Rights Centre
There are two commendable practices: reports on various human rights topics (an example of a vertical, bottom-up function) and advocacy work on the protection of vulnerable groups (an example of a horizontal function). These functions together can be labelled as the practice of making human rights practical and applicable to everyone. Two specific examples are given below.
  • Materials in relation to various human rights topics usually contain information about applicable international standards, the work of responsible European and international bodies and how these topics are handled in Estonia. For instance,recent materialsinclude guidance for teachers on Cybergram (an online learning environment), theEqual Treatment Act Handbook, guidelines for hiring refugees in the Estonian labour market, a report on age discrimination in the labour market and a report on privacy and data protection.
  • Strategic litigation. This is the resolution of cases of public importance through court or out-of-court proceedings. It can apply to civil, criminal and administrative cases. The aim of strategic litigation is to influence the quality of laws and the way laws are implemented through carefully selected individual cases. It is a method of advocacy. Usually these cases involve topics that are sensitive and go against the established regulatory framework and administrative practices, for instance cases involving asylum seekers, same-gender couples and hate speech limitations.
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Estonia The Chancellor of Justice’s work on creating connections
  • Chancellor of Justice
The Chancellor of Justice and the staff of the chancellor’s office are held in high esteem and considered opinion leaders in Estonia. Overall, the Chancellor of Justice, through multiple functions, brings together society around the idea that fundamental rights are important and have to be upheld in any decision by all branches of government. The chancellor’s practice of communication with society is considered very valuable.
The work of the Office of the Chancellor of Justice may be identified as a promising practice as follows.
  • It addresses various human rights issues relevant to society in easy-to-understand language and targeting the whole society. We can name this as the communicative function. The promising communicative practice is evident in the swift reaction of the chancellor to topics relevant to the whole society at the given moment, and by the chancellor providing a fundamental-rights-based and balanced perspective on these topics. This function is both vertical and horizontal, as described below.
  • Issuing opinions on matters connected to fundamental rights to the three branches of government is one of the main tasks of the Chancellor of Justice. This is an example of the horizontal function.
  • It has an individual remedial function. Everyone has the right to turn to the chancellor for assessment of whether, in certain situations, their fundamental rights have been upheld. This is an example of the vertical function.
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