Anti-propaganda laws | -5/10 | No evidence of applicable anti-discrimination legislation: 0/10 | Anti-discrimination legislation covers one protected characteristic: 5/10 | Two grounds of discrimination: 7.5/10 | Three grounds of discrimination: 10/10
The Estonian Constitution enlists the grounds of protection against discrimination, including gender, but not sexual orientation. The Chancellor of Justice gave an authoritative opinion in 2011, claiming that the open list of grounds of discrimination in Article 12 of the Estonian Constitution(1992) [133] includes sexual orientation.
The Equal Treatment Act (Chapter 1, Section 2, 2009) [134] prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in vocational guidance, vocational training, advanced vocational training and retraining, but not in elementary, secondary or upper secondary schools. Chapter 3, Section 13 of the Equal Treatment Act states that “educational and research institutions and other entities and person organising training shall, upon determination of the content of studies and organisation of studies, take account of the need to promote the principle of equal treatment”. The first twoEquality Commissioners (National Equality Body) have implemented the law in the manner that the anti-discrimination provision covers university studies since these provide a person with an occupation (all the expressed examples in the law deal with the vocational or occupational education).However, the Equal Treatment Act does not protect learners against discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation in the above mentioned general educational institutions.
For its part, the Gender Equality Act (2004) [135] has a wide scope of application, including the field of education. The law does not explicitly mention the term “gender identity”, but states that direct discrimination based on sex means also less favourable treatment of a person in connection with other gender-related circumstances (§ 3, sub 1 (3)). The first two Equality Commissioners have interpreted this law broadly to cover discrimination on the grounds of gender identity and hence investigated in their practice cases of discrimination of trans people.
The Basic Schools and Upper Secondary Schools Act (2010) [136] does not prohibit discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression or variations in sex characteristics, but it states that schools, in accordance with their internal rules, should ensure and protect the mental and physical security and the protection of the health of students during their stay at school and take measures to prevent mental and physical violence. Supervision over students throughout the school day should also be ensured for this purpose.
