Chancellor of Justice gave an overview of his activities to the Riigikogu

Today Allar Jõks presented The 2003/2004 Annual Report of Chancellor of Justice of Estonia to the Riigikogu.

Speaking of the work done in the basic areas, the Chancellor of Justice highlighted three positive trends.  In the opinion of Mr. Jõks, last year, first and foremost, the protection of the rights of children, the protection of fundamental rights restricted by criminal proceedings and surveillance had improved, and, as a significant positive change, also the availability of legal assistance.  ?It is no secret that up till now more than a half of the petitions, submitted to the Chancellor of Justice, can substantively be characterised as legal assistance petitions, ? Mr. Jõks stated, expressing appreciation that the Riigikogu had passed the State Legal Assistance Act which ensures provision of timely and sufficient competent and reliable legal services to all persons.

Speaking of trends inhibiting the democratic governing of state and the protection of fundamental rights, Mr. Jõks named the mechanism for the determination of subsistence benefits, the unclearness of financing the parties, the membership of the members of the Riigikogu in the Supervisory Boards of companies, also the refusal of citizens? election unions at the local elections.    Mr. Jõks illustrated the problems concerning the retroactive effect of laws being in contravention of the principle of legal certainty with concrete examples and the lack of quality of Bills concerning substantiation was treated separately. ?The explanatory letters to the Bills, instead of analyses of legal, economical and social influences and the consideration of different solutions, consist of paraphrases of the texts of Acts without section marks?, Mr. Jõks stated, adding that it was one of the reasons for decreasing the confidence between the state and people.

During the debates following the speech of Allar Jõks, the representatives of factions concurred the majority of the proposals made by the Chancellor of Justice, but the implementation of his proposals depended primarily on strong political will and administrative capacity of the state.

The Riigikogu Press Service