Statement by the OSCE Mission to Estonia on the adoption of changes to the laws on national and local elections

TALLINN, 23 November 2001 - The OSCE Mission to Estonia highly welcomes the decision by the Riigikogu (Estonian Parliament) on 21 November 2001 to amend the Laws on National and on Local Elections.

As could be seen from the debate in the Estonian Parliament, as well as from the broad press coverage of this issue, the need to bring the laws in line with international norms and standards, in particular with Art. 25 of the United Nations Covenant on Political and Civil Rights, has been recognized. This Article clearly states that every citizen shall have the right and the opportunity to vote and to be elected without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

The Mission would like to commend Estonia for this decision to grant voters the right to decide themselves for which Estonian citizen they want to vote and whom they deem most suitable to best represent their interests, regardless of their command of language. The Mission sees it as a very positive sign that the Riigikogu decided not to have two different categories of citizens, and believes that this will certainly have a positive impact on the Estonian integration process which the Mission has been closely following over the last few years.

In changing the current Laws on National and on Local Elections, Estonia has brought these laws in conformity with its international obligations and has thus once more proved that there has been tremendous progress concerning democracy in this country.

The OSCE Mission to Estonia finds this development and the strong commitment to international norms and democratic principles reaffirmed in the public and parliamentary debate very encouraging and will report on the latest developments to all the participating States of the Organization. The Head of the Mission to Estonia, Ambassador Doris Hertrampf, will report to the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on 13 December and she will recommend to Delegations that the mandate of the Mission should be regarded as having been fulfilled.