JPTi Urges UN Action Against Estonian Draft Law Threatening Religious Freedom

Intern JPTi
20 hours ago
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Updated: 13 hours ago

JPTi Urges UN Action Against Estonian Draft Law Threatening Religious Freedom

📅 16 June 2025 | Geneva, Switzerland

Justice pour Tous Internationale (JPTi) has submitted a second supplementary complaint to the United Nations Special Procedures, calling for urgent international intervention in response to escalating violations of religious freedom in Estonia.

Our latest submission draws attention to Draft Law No. 570 UA, now approaching its final reading in the Riigikogu (Estonian Parliament) on 18 June 2025. The bill seeks to criminalise canonical ties to foreign religious authorities, a move clearly directed at the Estonian Orthodox Christian Church (EOCC) and its legitimate Primate, Metropolitan Evgenii, who was unlawfully expelled from Estonia in February 2025 under opaque national security pretexts.

📌 The proposed law permits:

The dissolution of religious communities
Disqualification of clergy based on nationality
State-enforced restructuring of ecclesiastical governance➡️ All without any judicial oversight.

Moreover, in a deeply discriminatory act, the EOCC has been denied state funding solely because of its canonical affiliation with the Moscow Patriarchate—justified by a 2022 resolution of the Estonian Parliament declaring the Russian Federation a “State supporting terrorism.” No misconduct has ever been alleged.

🛑 This law violates core provisions of the ICCPR and the ECHR, and represents a paradigmatic misuse of national security rhetoric to suppress religious identity and dismantle a minority religious community of over 170,000 adherents.

We call on the UN Special Rapporteurs to:✅ Publicly urge Estonian MPs to reject Draft Law No. 570 UA✅ Support the principled veto by President Alar Karis✅ Demand the return of Metropolitan Evgenii to resume his religious mission

JPTi stands ready to provide further documentation and testimony. Together, we must defend religious freedom and the rule of law—not rule by law.

📄Press release, letter to the UN Special Procedures Mandate Holders and the text of the 2nd Supplementary Submission in English