Justice minister vows new gender equality bill will reach vote before elections
Estonian Justice Minister Liisa Pakosta says the long-stalled equal opportunities bill will be passed within the current Riigikogu term. She has not disclosed its contents or timeline, and the equal treatment commissioner doubts the promise.
Estonian Justice Minister Liisa Pakosta has said the gender equality and equal opportunities bill will be passed during the current Riigikogu term. She has not set out what the draft contains or how its processing will be scheduled.
According to Pakosta, time is not too tight: under normal procedure the bill should reach the Riigikogu by November at the latest. She said it is normal for some bills to take longer.
Constitution as protection
Pakosta argued that the bill's long delay is not a problem, because paragraph 12 of the Constitution already directly guarantees protection against discrimination in all areas of life. In her view, the bill would change very little in people's lives. She declined to discuss how the current draft differs from the version she withdrew in 2024.
Secrecy over preparatory materials
When Pakosta halted the bill prepared at the Ministry of Economic Affairs in 2024, the Ministry of Justice commissioned a new perspective from the law firm Sorainen, without informing the NGOs and the equal treatment commissioner's office that had worked on the earlier draft. The minister says the firm produced preparatory materials rather than a bill, but she kept them from the public. The analysis was also not shown to commissioner Christian Veske, who requested it. Pakosta said the Data Protection Inspectorate has confirmed that such materials need not always be public.
Commissioner is skeptical
In the summer Veske sent the minister proposals, including a recommendation to complete the bill's processing. He described her reply as vague and doubts the bill will be processed in this term, since stakeholders have received no substantive information for two years. Pakosta said a consultation with stakeholders is still planned, but gave no date.
The halted bill aimed to merge the Gender Equality Act and the Equal Treatment Act into a single law and close a gap in which protection against discrimination is not equal across all characteristics.
