EUROPE & EURASIA
Estonia
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) sponsored an in-country learning program, conducted in conjunction with Boston University School of Law and organized by the Estonia Law Centre Foundation.
The Estonia Law Centre Foundation, an Estonian NGO affiliated with a leading university, focused the discussion on legislative problem-solving theory and methodology. Integration into the EU had sapped considerable energy from the civil-society sector, the effects of communism were still felt, and civil society needed strengthening to participate effectively in law-making.
Participants sought to harmonize Estonian and EU laws, understand the design of individual laws, and improve the ability of NGOs to develop their own legislative agenda and work on a political level. Participants sought to create a more organized forum for legislative drafting and to emphasize civil society involvement in legislative drafting and policy formation.
Participants included 75-100 civil servants and civil society representatives. After the initial in-country learning program, some participants went on to participate in the e-Learning course Legislative Drafting for Democratic Social Change, for which they wrote bills and research reports.
Participants went on to develop country-specific training materials, and to lead trainings for the Estonia Law Centre Foundation (ELCF). These trainings have included:
•civil-society roundtables for preparing reports and presenting them to ministry officials to discuss changes in bills;
•ministerial and MP trainings; and
•issue-specific civil society round-tables for stakeholders.
The ELCF also initiated development of an ICLAD-affiliated Academic Program in partnership with a local university.
Bills drafted:
Enforcing Judgments on Money Claims
Health Insurance and Gender Discrimination
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