Estonia

Status

Estonia was the first county of the former Soviet Union to sign the OPCAT in September 2004. Estonia ratified the OPCAT in 2006 and designated its Ombudsperson's Office (Office of the Chancellor of Justice) as NPM. The Chancellor of Justice started its operations as NPM in 2007.

In addition to its NPM mandate, the Chancellor of Justice is also performing the duties of Ombudsman and Constitutional Review.

Both the Committee against Torture (2007) and the Human Rights Committee (2010) expressed concerns regarding the compliance of the Chancellor of Justice with the Paris Principles.

The SPT member who is the SPT Focal Point for Estonia is available here.

NPM Structure

In September 2015, the Chancellor of Justice established a new department, the Inspection Visits Department, responsible to carry out the NPM tasks, in order to increase the efficiency of the work of the NPM.

Between 2007 and 2015, the NPM tasks were carried out by three thematic units of the Chancellor and were coordinated by one of the Deputy Chancellor of Justice: one unit focusing on prisons, police, military service and expulsion centre; another unit focusing on social care homes, psychiatric hospitals, rehabilitation centres; and the third unit focusing on children.

Annual Reports 

Each year, the Chancellor of Justice submits an annual report to the Parliament, including an overview of its activities as NPM. The summaries of the annual reports are available on the Chancellor's website.