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The Chancellor’s Year in Review 2022/2023 summarizes the performance of the Office of the Chancellor of Justice in fulfilling the tasks assigned by law from 1 September 2022 to 31 August 2023. 

The overview of the activities of the Chancellor of Justice covers the period from 1 September 2019 to 31 August 2020. Among other things, this year’s annual overview includes a chapter on the emergency situation.

The Chancellor of Justice is an independent constitutional institution appointed to office by the Riigikogu (parliament) on the proposal of the President of the Republic for a term of seven years. The Chancellor’s task is to make sure that legislation valid in Estonia is in conformity with the Constitution and that the fundamental rights and liberties of people in Estonia are protected.

The Annual Report 2017-2018 covers the period from 1 September 2017 to 31 August 2018. The report has been published in a new web form and it includes information on children's rights, inspection visits, local authorities, equal treatment, courts and many other topics.

From 29 June to 2 July, advisors to the Chancellor of Justice visited the Erastvere Home, the Kodijärve Home and the special care centre Pariisi Erihoolduskeskus. The problems identified during inspection visits were generally similar in all three institutions.

Last year, advisers to the Chancellor of Justice visited four psychiatric hospitals, six special care homes and 12 nursing care hospitals to see how the rights of residents are protected. In many institutions, problems were detected in the storage of medicines and their administration to residents. There are also doubts regarding residents’ dignity always being guaranteed in these places.

Last year, advisers to the Chancellor of Justice made eight inspection visits to various nursing care establishments in Estonia. The inspections revealed that in several of these, patients may be held in locked rooms without reason and treated without appropriate consent and their dignity may not always be guaranteed.

Chancellor of Justice Indrek Teder has sent a proposal to Pärnu-Jaagupi Nursing Home that they stop locking the doors of patients’ rooms. The Chancellor of Justice emphasises that Pärnu-Jaagupi Nursing Home and other similar institutions have no legal grounds to lock people in their rooms.

The Chancellor of Justice, as the Ombudsman for Children, has prepared an analysis based on inspection of substitute homes (formerly children’s homes) which provides an overview of how the rights of children raised in such homes in Estonia are guaranteed. The Ombudsman is of the opinion that minimum standards should be established for substitute homes.