The Riigikogu made a Statement for the protection of children in Tibet
At today's sitting, the Riigikogu adopted a Statement for the protection of children in Tibet and approved the Council of Europe agreement establishing the Management Committee of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine.
The Riigikogu adopted the Statement of the Riigikogu “For the Protection of Children in Tibet” (763 AE), submitted by 53 members of the Riigikogu. It condemns the Chinese assimilation policy and the boarding school system in Tibet which aim to eradicate various linguistic, cultural, and religious traditions of Tibetans and other minorities, such as the Uyghurs.
The statement notes that the official policy of the People’s Republic of China emphasizes equality and autonomy with regard to the ethnic minorities living in the country, while at the same time focusing on social control and assimilation of these ethnicities. “The Chinese authorities have established an extensive system of de facto compulsory and politicised boarding schools for children aged 4 to 18, requiring them to receive compulsory education in Mandarin Chinese without the opportunity to learn in depth or use the Tibetan language, or to study Tibetan culture and history,” the Statement says. It also refers to the report of the UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteurs and the European Parliament resolution adopted on the basis of it which strongly condemned the repressive assimilation policy throughout China.
In the Statement, the Riigikogu demands an immediate abolishment of the boarding school system established for children and the practice of separating families in Tibet and calls on the authorities of the People’s Republic of China to allow the establishment of Tibetan private schools. The Riigikogu also calls on countries and the European Commission to insist that the government of the People’s Republic of China issue visas to European diplomats for visits to boarding schools across Tibet and allow independent journalists and international observers to enter the region.
In addition, in the Statement, the Riigikogu calls on other national parliaments to adopt statements for the protection of children in Tibet, and to forward them to European Union institutions, the United Nations Organisation, and the government and parliament of the People’s Republic of China.
Margit Sutrop from the Reform Party Group, Anti Poolamets from the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group, Tõnis Lukas from Isamaa Parliamentary Group and Juku-Kalle Raid from Estonia 200 Parliamentary Group took the floor during the debate. Ester Karuse took the floor on behalf of the Social Democratic Party Group.
67 members of the Riigikogu voted in favour of passing the Statement.
The Riigikogu also passed the Act on the Approval of the Enlarged Partial Agreement of the Council of Europe on the Management Committee of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (760 SE), initiated by the Government. The Act approved the Council of Europe agreement establishing the Management Committee of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine and regulating its activities.
Ukraine and the Council of Europe agreed in July last year that a special tribunal for crimes of aggression would be established under the auspices of the Council of Europe. The Special Tribunal is an international court with the jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute individuals who have committed the crime of aggression against Ukraine, including the top leadership of the Russian Federation, even after their term of office has ended. The Tribunal has the power to punish persons convicted of a crime of aggression in accordance with international law.
Estonia has participated in the preparatory work for the special tribunal since 2022, being part of a core group of 40 countries, which also included representatives of the European Union and the Council of Europe. The core group completed its work in the spring of 2025, preparing drafts of the basic documents necessary for the tribunal. Ukraine submitted the documents related to the tribunal to the Council of Europe on 14 May last year, after which the Committee of Ministers’ Deputies of the Council of Europe authorized the signing of agreements with the tribunal and the establishment of a management committee on 24 June. The Secretary General of the Council of Europe and the President of Ukraine signed the agreement on 25 June, and the Ukrainian Parliament ratified it in mid-July.
Participation in the agreement entails an obligation to finance the special tribunal. According to initial estimates, the cost of the special tribunal will be 60–70 million euro per year which will be divided between the participating states. The agreement is open-ended and the state’s financial commitment will be long-term.
59 members of the Riigikogu supported the passing of the Act.
Two Bills passed the second reading
The Bill on Amendments to the Advertising Act and the Personal Data Protection Act (696 SE), initiated by the Government, passed the second reading in the Riigikogu. It will bring Estonian law into conformity with the European Union’s Political Advertising Transparency Regulation.
The regulation sets two major requirements for the publication of political advertising: advertisements must be published with a political advertising label, and a transparency notice must be prepared for them. Labels must be added to advertisements regardless of whether they are audiovisual, printed media, online, or offline advertising. The publisher of an advertisement is responsible for ensuring that the advertisement is properly labelled and that a transparency notice is provided.
Specific requirements are provided for online political advertising when targeting and delivery techniques based on the processing of personal data are used. In such cases, service providers must keep records to ensure that both personal data protection and transparency requirements are met.
According to the Bill, the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority and the Data Protection Inspectorate will exercise supervision over compliance with the Political Advertising Transparency Regulation in Estonia. The bill also provides for misdemeanour penalties for violating the requirements.
On the second reading, amendments were incorporated into the bill to abandon the creation of a separate expert commission and to grant the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority the right to request, if necessary, an opinion from the Political Parties Financing Surveillance Committee in order to help clarify in more complex cases whether a specific notification, message, or activity qualifies as political advertising within the meaning of the Political Advertising Regulation.
Mart Maastik from Isamaa Parliamentary Group, Lauri Laats and Vladimir Arhipov from the Centre Party Group and non-attached Member of the Riigikogu Kalle Grünthal took the floor during the debate.
Isamaa Parliamentary Group and the Centre Party Group moved to suspend the second reading of the Bill, but the motion was not supported. 21 members of the Riigikogu supported suspension of the deliberation but 42 voted against it.
The Bill on Amendments to the Public Information Act and the Language Act (759 SE), initiated by the Government, also passed the second reading. It will specify the legal bases for personal services of the electronic government.
According to the bill, the Estonian open data portal ‘eesti.ee’ will become the central point of contact for providing proactive government service which will be developed to be technology-neutral. The portal will display the entire service process in a personalized form.
The bill will also create a data consent system where people will be able to give, manage, and withdraw their consents, and an authorization management system where businesses will be able to manage their authorizations. The bill will also establish a translation database where state agencies will be able to manage commissioned translation projects. According to the bill, the translation gateway will be opened to everyone from 2027, allowing both machine translation and the use of anonymized translation memories.
A Bill passed the first reading
The Bill on Amendments to the Political Parties Act (777 SE), initiated by the Social Democratic Party Parliamentary Group and Members of the Riigikogu Ester Karuse, Tanel Kiik and Andre Hanimägi, passed the first reading in the Riigikogu. It will impose an obligation on the Political Parties Financing Surveillance Committee to submit an annual report on its work to the Riigikogu.
According to the initiators, the aim of the amendment is to strengthen the functioning of democracy, improve the transparency of political party funding, and ensure that the public has a regular overview of the status of the oversight of political party funding.
Two bills were dropped from legislative proceedings
The Riigikogu rejected at the first reading the Bill on the Prohibition of Cross-border Surrogacy (762 SE), initiated by the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group. It was intended to ban both domestic and cross-border surrogacy in Estonia. According to the initiators, the bill was intended to prevent risks and establish clear legal liability for those ordering surrogacy, intermediaries, and service providers.
Evelin Poolamets from the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group and Riina Sikkut from the Social Democratic Party Parliamentary Group took the floor during the debate.
The Legal Affairs Committee moved to reject the Bill at the first reading. 46 members of the Riigikogu supported rejection and 13 voted against.
The Riigikogu also rejected at the first reading the Bill on the Repeal of the Estonian Public Broadcasting Act (758 SE), initiated by the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group. It was intended to liquidate the Estonian Public Broadcasting and repeal the Act regulating its activities. According to the initiators, the aim of the bill was to eliminate the media group supported by taxpayer’s money from the media landscape and to create more private-law-based open competition and diversity in the public information field.
Raimond Kaljulaid from the Social Democratic Party Group, Liina Kersna from the Reform Party Group, Urmas Reinsalu from Isamaa Parliamentary Group and Anti Poolamets from the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Parliamentary Group took the floor during the debate.
The Cultural Affairs Committee moved to reject the Bill at the first reading. 46 members of the Riigikogu supported the rejection and nine were against it.
The sitting ended at 8.06 p.m.
Verbatim record of the sitting (in Estonian)
Video recording will be available to watch later on the Riigikogu YouTube channel.
Riigikogu Press Service
Karin Kangro
+372 631 6356, +372 520 0323
[email protected]
Questions: [email protected]
