PART III
PART II
PART I
CHANCELLOR OF JUSTICE AS NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM
treatment and/or the respective competence of the Chancellor of Justice were published by the
Chancellor and one of his advisers:
1) I. Teder. Public address to the Minister of Social Affairs for the prohibition of corporal
punishment of children. 19 November 201213;
2) A. Aru. Ikka veel ihunuhtlus? [Still corporal punishment?] – Märka Last, autumn 2012,
pp 6–10.
In addition, officials from the Office of the Chancellor organised training events and information
days for staff in places of detention. In 2012, one major training project on the prevention of illtreatment was carried out: R. Sults trained conscripts in 24 units of the Defence Forces on the
fundamental rights.
Training of the staff of the Chancellor’s Office on the prevention of ill-treatment is equally
important. Therefore, a training course on intellectual disability (i.e. what is intellectual
disability, how to establish contact with persons with intellectual disability, how to assess the
truthfulness of their statements, etc) was carried out in 2012.
In his activities as the national preventive mechanism, the Chancellor of Justice considers
international cooperation with other preventive bodies and relevant international organisations
to be very important. Advisers to the Chancellor attended the following events:
– 19–22 March K. Albi attended the seminar „Monitoring for the risks of ill-treatment
or torture during the immigration removal process: key issues facing the NPMs“ in
Geneva;
– 18–20 June I.-I. Määrits and J. Konsa attended the working meeting of ombudsmen of
Baltic countries in Riga where, inter alia, OPCAT matters were discussed;
– 22–27 September I. Teder and R. Sults attended the fourth annual International
Conference of Ombudsman Institutions for the Armed Forces, in Ottawa.
In addition, meetings with the following international visitors took place in the Office of the
Chancellor of Justice:
– 26 March, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) regional
representative for the Baltic and Nordic countries Pia Prytz Phiri;
– 30 May, delegation of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT).
In 2012, the Chancellor analysed the constitutionality of several legal acts with regard to the
issues directly or indirectly related to the prevention of ill-treatment (e.g. admissibility of
immediate enforcement of disciplinary punishments imposed on prisoners, constitutionality
of compensation for the use of a personal electric appliance by a prisoner, issues relating to
a personal account, admissibility of mandatory pre-trial procedure). The Chancellor found no
direct unconstitutionality with regard to these norms.
Several proceedings carried out by the Chancellor within his ombudsman competence also relate
to the prevention of ill-treatment, for example problems in the provision of health services to
asylum seekers (including translation and interpreting, access to a doctor), recording of the
use of direct coercion and the health condition of a detainee by the police, taking a person to
a sobering-up facility and the use of special equipment in respect of them within the process,
use of means of restraint in respect of a prisoner during their stay in a hospital outside a
prison, presence of a prisoner during the search of their cell, problems relating to replying to
inquiries in a prison. On the basis of the above ombudsman proceedings, the Chancellor has
also made some general recommendations, proposals and conclusions on the need to change
administrative practices.
4
13 Available online: http://oiguskantsler.ee/en/chancellor-of-justices-public-address-to-the-minister-of-socialaffairs-on-prohibition-of-corporal.