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Description
In Estonia, advocacy on gender equality related issues is relatively weak and the status of women and gender minorities is constantly challenged. One reason is the overall low advocacy capacity of CSOs, the other is that the activists'' community is scattered. The aim of the project is to increase the capacity of Oma Tuba to conduct advocacy on behalf of women, sexual and gender minorities in Estonia, and to empower the activists'' community. through community empowerment program and communication. The long-term goal of the project is to ensure wider support for human rights and gender equality in Estonian society. With the support of the ACF, Oma Tuba NGO will develop its advocacy strategy and employ an advocacy officer responsible for Oma Tuba''s advocacy efforts. Oma Tuba will also launch a community program that includes networking and meetings of women and other minority groups that help them to be informed, organized and if necessary to mobilize themselves for common causes. An important aspect of the project is communication: communicating issues that women, sexual and gender minorities face, to the wider public to raise the overall awareness in society. The project is carried out in partnership with NGO Women ''s Wave, the Estonian Youth Mental Health Movement and Salam Norge (Norway). Partners provide input to the project by organizing community events on their area of expertise (e.g. campaigning, activism and mental health, Norwegian partner will provide their expertise in community organizing and advocacy).
Summary of project results
Advocacy on gender equality issues in Estonia is not strong enough, primarily due to the insufficient advocacy capacity of CSOs working in the field, the passivity of the community interested in gender equality, and its lack of organization. The project was necessary to empower vulnerable groups, mainly women and people belonging to sexual and gender minorities in Estonia, by combining consistent communication efforts, advocacy, and empowerment activities.
The project was strategically important because, in recent years, there have been representatives in the government who have expressed ambitions to restrict women''s rights. Therefore, it was particularly important to continue to advocate for the rights of women, sexual minorities, and gender minorities with dignity to prevent setbacks in the areas of gender equality and human rights. The project made it possible to do this through the online platform, Feministeerium, and mainstream media outlets.
Although the community interested in gender equality in Estonia is sizable, most of its activity takes place online rather than in real life. Social media has its limitations and is not always a safe space for women and gender minorities. Therefore, it was necessary to combine online activism with activities that included physical meetings and events to foster solidarity and empowerment within the community.
Activities of the project were threefold: advocacy, communication and empowerment efforts.
Until now, Feministeerium''s advocacy efforts have been hindered by a lack of human and financial resources, as well as a limited strategic approach. The project enabled the hiring of a part-time advocacy specialist, which allowed Feministeerium to engage in advocacy work more systematically and strategically.
Most important advocacy topics and efforts included the following:
- continuation of statutory funding for gender equality issues from gambling tax revenues;
- changes to the Equal Treatment Act and the topic of sexual self-determination;
- input on gender equality issues for Estonia''s periodic human rights review (UPR) report, several related meetings with ministers, members of parliament, and foreign embassy representatives, and a speech at Estonia''s UPR pre-session in March 2020, attended by UN representatives from 26 countries in Geneva;
- written opinions to GREVIO (the monitoring committee for the Istanbul Convention), the Ministry of Finance regarding structural funds, and the Ministry of Social Affairs regarding the European Commission''s proposals on the EU Pay Transparency Directive, as well as to the Ministry of Justice regarding the age of consent bill.
In the framework of project’s communication activities the perspectives of women, sexual and gender minorities were published on Feministeerium online publication and in the mainstream media. In total, in-house and 24 guest authors published 72 articles, including 45 in Estonian and 27 in Russian, of which 11 were distributed in mainstream media as well.
As a part of the community empowerment program, there were 59 open evenings, during which 220 people visited the Feministeerium space and organized 18 events with the help of community members and project partners. In Tallinn, online, and in Southern Estonia at the international Y!? festival, 620 people from Estonia and Europe took part in the events. More than three-quarters rated the events as positive, mentioned that participating provided knowledge, motivation and courage. 12 volunteers were engaged who helped to hold open evenings and organize other events.
The project enabled a part-time advocacy specialist to dedicate herself to her work, which supported the Feministeerium in dealing with advocacy more systematically and strategically. As a result, the team developed a general and advocacy strategy suitable for Feministeeirum, based on which the specialist carried out regular policy monitoring during the project, interacted with politicians, ministry officials and NGOs. Among other things, Feministeerium advocated for raising the age of sexual consent from 14 to 16 and for the Family Law Act will be amended to change the exceptional minimum age of marriage for minors from 15 to 18. In November 2021, the Minister of Justice presented the bill to the government, greenlighting the change to start from June 2022
The project created an environment where, by being together in a shared space, people could build meaningful relationships with others who shared their interests and values, through both purposeful and informal interactions. In addition to fostering essential networking, these meetings provided opportunities for education, organization, and, when necessary, mobilization, while also fostering solidarity and empowerment, which women and members of other vulnerable groups greatly need.
As for sustaining the results, the necessary structures for the work in the form of team members and established networks support this, as well as stable contacts with authors, officials and activists. Direct contact with community members is maintained through social media groups, the Mailchimp newsletter, reading group meetings and other events. The use of an advocacy strategy based on needs and opportunities has enabled Feministeerium to make a big leap in organizational and advocacy capacity.
It is also worth noting the maintenance of existing capacity amidst the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which occurred during the project period. The strategy that was developed helped make communication-related decisions in the changing situation. Additionally, community events—whether moved online or outdoors—helped the community look toward the future, maintain mental health, and keep an intersectional focus on issues of social justice.
Summary of bilateral results
The project’s donor partner was Salam Norge from Norway, as an intersectional approach to community work and activities is important for both them and the Feministeerium. Originally, it was to invite Salam to Tallinn during Baltic Pride so to directly share experiences in the fields of advocacy and community work and to organize a discussion on intersectionality together. Unfortunately, The Baltic Pride of 2020 was cancelled due to Covid-19 outbreak. Eventually, an online event was organized at the Baltic Pride in Riga in the summer of 2021, “What does queer activism mean in Eastern and Northern Europe?” where 13 people from Estonia, Norway, Latvia, Finland and from the USA took part. Salam Norge''s work is interesting to the Feministeerium because it brings the religious dimension of activism to queer feminism.