Legal department
Ministry of Defense of Estonia
18 May 2020
DCAF - Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance
Chemin Eugène-Rigot 2E
CH-1202 Geneva
Switzerland
Dear Sir/Madam:
I would like to inform you that the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF), a Swiss-
based foundation dedicated to improving governance of the security sector, is conducting a study
on the topic of conscripts’ rights.
Conscripts, like all soldiers, should be regarded as citizens in uniform: they should enjoy the same
rights and fundamental freedoms as ordinary citizens. In practice, however, this does not always
hold true; particularly in Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia, where the practice of
“dedovshchina” (rule of the grandfathers) remains widespread. Commonly referred to as “hazing” in
the West, in these regions, the practice has been linked to numerous cases of torture, forced
detention and suicide. The first step in addressing this phenomenon is to assess the effectiveness
of the legal mechanisms currently employed in these regions to protect the rights of conscripts.
To this end, DCAF leads a study of legal acts and regulatory mechanisms currently in place to protect
the rights of their conscripts and assess their conformity with international best practices. The study
will include assessments of legal acts and regulatory mechanisms in place in Ukraine, Georgia,
Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. It will be written by local authors and
published in the English and Russian language.
To contribute to the study, DCAF is doing a research on a best practice regarding conscription in
Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia. We believe that Estonia that maintains
conscription has useful insights that international, national and local actors could draw on when
undertaking activities to improve the protection of the rights of conscripts in the researched area.
DCAF would like to ask the Legal department of the Ministry of Defense of Estonia in assisting its
study by answering six questions regarding conscription.
Please see the list of the questions below:
1. Which countries have been followed in the process of drafting an Estonian Law on
conscription, if any?
2. Were there any legal acts that encountered difficulties in their application because of
the soviet legacy of the country? For example, any cases of “dedovschina” in the next
few years after the collapse of the USSR?
3. What stood behind the decision to keep conscription in 2000s, when both Latvia and
Lithuania have abolished it?
4. Are there any problems or issues linked to conscripts’ rights and their violations, if
any?
5. What are the complaint mechanisms, that ensure conscripts can timely report
violations of their rights?
6. What instruments/institutions perform the monitoring of the situation regarding
conscripts?
7. What institutions ensure the appropriate treatment of violations? What are the
investigation mechanisms in place?
I would kindly ask you to respond to the questions.
Sincerely yours,
Dr. Grazvydas Jasutis
Project Coordinator – Europe and Central Asia Division
Drafted by Elizaveta Chmykh
Project Assistant – Europe and Central Asia Division
+41 227 309 480
+41 778 155 164
[email protected]