Human Rights Treaties

The Republic of Estonia in principle part in two human rights protection systems - UN and Council of Europe. The former is universal and the latter is regional. On European level, Estonia is also active in other organisations, which activities touch upon human rights in one way or the other – e.g. European Union, OSCE, Council of the Baltic Sea States etc. However, most of the human rights activity related to Estonia takes place in UN and in the Council of Europe and on the basis of conventions adopted under the auspices of the organisations.

According to several of these conventions, the signatory states are obliged to submit reports on the implementation of the respective conventions and some of them also provide the possibility for individuals to submit complaints against their respective states. To examine these reports and complaints, committees have been set up for the respective conventions. In case of the European Human Rights Convention, a court has been set up to examine complaints.
Reports submitted by Estonia or any other country are interesting as they demonstrate the views of public authorities on different human rights questions and on the human rights situation in the country. At the same time, the summary records of the considerations of these reports and the concluding observations or comments demonstrate the human rights situation in Estonia as it is seen from outside.
The current section gives a complete overview of human rights conventions that Estonia has signed. It also give the list of reports that Estonia has submitted, relevant documents from the respective committees and complaints against Estonia where there are any.
UN human rights treaties that Estonia has signed: