Inimõiguste Nõukogu 35. sessioon
Intervention by ESTONIA
Item 3 – Clustered ID with Special Rapporteur on independence of judgesand lawyers and Special Rapporteur on violence against women
Genf, 12 juuni 2017
Thank you Mr President,
Estonia fullyaligns itself with the statement made by the European Union.
We welcome the first report of the Special Rapporteur, Mr Diego Garcia-Sayan,on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, and the areas of focus during thecourse of his mandate on the impact of corruption, organized crime and othertransnational threats on the judiciary. Wewish the Special Rapporteur every success in fulfilling his mandate and assurehim of our complete cooperation.
Estonia wouldlike to thank the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, Dr. DubravkaŠimonović, for the report. We appreciate the topic chosen for this report. Supportand protection services are crucial in fighting violence against women. We needto encourage those women and girls who have fallen victim of violence to seekhelp without being afraid to being subjected to secondary discrimination or evengreater violence while doing so, and ensuring their safety and human rightsthrough the provision of those services.
Estonia has takenvarious protection measures on violence against women. Starting from the January 2017requirements for woman´s shelters’ service for women victims of violence aredescribed in the Victim Support Act. The service is available in every countyin Estonia. Furthermore, other services provided today towomen victims of violence are for example national victim supportservice, around-the-clock hotline for victims of violence against women andtheir relatives, services for victims of sexual abuse or rape and immediatetrauma support.
Lastly,Estonia is moving towards the ratification of the Council of Europe Conventionon preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (IstanbulConvention). Thus, we would like to ask whether the Special Rapporteur wouldhave any good practices to share about the implementation of the IstanbulConvention provisions on shelters and protection orders?
Thank you.