The importance of disability rights within Estonia
Kelly Grossthal came to the conference to talk about the work of the Human Rights Centre of Estonia. It is a state-owned NGO, mainly dealing with advocacy.
Strategic litigation (going to court) can be super expensive and time consuming. It requires legal knowledge. The Human Rights Centre helps people go to court to address human rights issues either by paying lawyers’ fees, or hiring lawyers.
A recent example concerned a young man with reduced mobility. The Estonian constitution states that everyone has a right to choose his or her occupation. Also every person in Estonia has the right to a good standard of living. Work mobility reform in Estonia encourages people with a disability to stay active in the labour market as a condition of getting social benefits. At the same time it is difficult for people with reduced mobility to find a job, and difficult to get to work. Transport support is a rigid system because you have to give advance notice about the time you want the transport, whereas employers expect you to be quite flexible.
The man had three part-time jobs, one in Tallinn and two outside. The system paid for one social taxi, but not for the other two jobs. To pay for transport himself would have cost 90% of his earnings. He couldn’t rely on public transport because some trains and buses are accessible, but many are not. With the help of the Human Rights Centre, he won a ruling in court which concluded that this is unconstitutional. The state and local government must provide more flexible ways for people with reduced mobility to stay active. She said, “We won the first round and we will continue with this case as it progresses to the district court.”
A real concern for the Human Rights Centre is that Estonia is almost the only country in Europe that doesn’t have specific hate crime legislation and no regulation or limits for hate speech. The Centre is worried that hate speech is becoming normalised especially through social media. It is becoming normal to say horrible things about minorities and this can also lead to hate crimes. People, because of skin colour, have been attacked during the day. We are trying to address this through better education and changes in legislation.
Regarding LGBT rights, Estonia has a Registered Partnership Act. Partners can sign a cohabitation agreement. People can sign a contract for a legal partnership, yet some things are missing. Estonia is an E-country, but the LGBT community cannot use E-service in the same way because at present they have to show their same sex agreement in paper form.
Finn Hellman asked whether there have been any hate speech or crimes committed against guide dog users. Kelly Grossthal had no recollection of hate speech against guide dog users. It was mainly targeted towards people of African descent, gay and lesbian people. There had been very few cases where disability had been the grounds – that’s more hidden. Christel Sogenbits added that there had been instances where guide dog owners have felt threatened.
David Adams asked whether there is a distinction between criminal and civil offences as is the case in the UK where it is a criminal offence for a taxi driver to refuse a guide dog, but a restaurant access refusal would be a civil case that you have to take to court yourself. Kelly Grossthal replied that all cases relating to public and private services are civil law. You have to go to court yourself if you are refused.
Judith Jones recounted an incident at Milton Keynes railway station. A Pitbull terrier, owned by a rough sleeper, was not on a lead. It attacked David’s guide dog Zoey. The police had seen the CCTV footage and were considering prosecuting the owner for not keeping the dog under control after previous warnings. They didn’t take him to court because they thought the court would feel sorry for the rough sleeper. Instead, they had the dog put down. The example illustrated how seriously the UK takes this type of offence. Sean Dilley added that if a dog attacks a guide dog, in the UK the Dangerous Dogs Act makes it an aggravated offence when it comes to sentencing.