Today, the Estonian Human Rights Centre introduced its brand-new Human Rights Report, which supplies an overview of the state of human rights issues in Estonia in 2018-2019. The compilation and publication of the report was sponsored by ADM Group, Swedbank and private donors.
According to the “Human Rights in Estonia 2020” report, which was introduced today, the general state of human rights issues in Estonia has improved over the last couple of years. At the same time, the authors of the report note that Estonian society is currently endangered by the spread of intolerant rhetoric, the current state of journalism and freedom of speech and the increasingly more popular idea that human rights are only the rights of the majority.
“Sponsoring and supporting the publication of the human rights report made sense for us. We at ADM have always stood for equal rights both within our company as well as outside of it – earlier this year, we signed the Estonian Diversity Charter and we also work with various human rights organisations, such as Amnesty International. We believe that a diverse environment is great for innovation but if we want such environments to exist, then we must first ensure that everyone’s individual rights are protected. The “Human Rights in Estonia 2020” report shows that Estonia has made positive progress over the last couple of years, but we can also see how much still needs to be done, so I hope that this upwards trend keeps going upwards,” said Klemens Arro, the CEO of ADM Cloudtech.
The “Human Rights in Estonia 2020” report consists of 12 chapters. The authors of each chapter are experts in their field who work independently from the government. The report touches on a variety of issues, ranging from those related to ethnic minorities, refugees, asylum seekers and persons with disabilities to the state of the freedom of assembly, the right to a fair trial and the freedom of expression. The report has been published since 2007 and relies on donations for publication.
The Estonian Human Rights Centre is an independent non-governmental human rights advocacy organisation that works together with its supporters in the name of an Estonia that respects the rights and freedoms of each person.
Summary in English is available here: https://humanrights.ee/en/2019/12/human-rights-in-estonia-2020/
The full report is available here (in Estonian): https://humanrights.ee/materjalid/inimoigused-eestis-2020