Planned bill will address burial, cemetery issues
Thanks to changing burial customs and complex family relationships, the Ministry of Regional and Rural Affairs is preparing a new cemetery bill which, if it passes into law, would regulate the transfer of burial plots.
It would also take into account new burial customs, such as "tree burials," effectively a sapling being planted alongside an urn of ashes.
Most cemeteries in Estonia are municipality-run.
Kalle Voogla, head of Tartu cemeteries, told "Aktuaalne kaamera" the most pressing matter is transferring burial plots.
This is because family relationships are often highly complex.
A recent example of "tree burials" came in Kose, Harju County, over the summer.
The cremated ashes of two people were interred near the apartment building they had lived in, and trees were planted in their memory.
Kose Municipal Mayor Raul Siem (EKRE) said: "In the given case, the remains of multiple people were involved, which, under current law, constitutes the establishment of a cemetery."
In this case, the matter was easily resolved.
"There are specific procedures on this, but no extensive persuasion was necessary. The individuals involved were very understanding and did not want to contravene existing laws, so the deceased have now been reburied," Siem went on.
Requests to scatter ashes or to bury them outside designated cemeteries are becoming more common, and potential regulations to reflect this trend are also being considered in the new cemetery law.
Martin Kulp, head of the legal department at the Ministry of Regional and Rural Affairs' local government section, said: "This issue is well-known, and there have been discussions on how it might be regulated. … There is clearly no plan to enforce blanket oversight over how people store or bury their urns."
One proposed solution is to have people state their intentions for an urn when they collect ashes from the crematorium.
In this way, the state could track the fate of urns that do not make it to a cemetery.
According to Kulp, there are three main points of contention regarding current law. First, the transfer of burial plot usage rights when family members cannot reach an agreement.
The second category "involves various restrictions and conditions that municipalities might wish to establish within cemeteries, which have already led to numerous cases being brought before the Chancellor of Justice," Kulp added.
The plan aims to clarify local governments' rights to establish specific landscaping guidelines for cemeteries to head off any chaotic visual landscapes emerging.
The third matter requires modifying various parameters written into the law, including burial depth.
Kulp said: "The law does not directly regulate or prohibit tree burials. However, it strictly stipulates that an urn must be buried at least one meter deep, and we all know that a tree planted at one-meter depth will not likely take root."
Kalle Voogla said the most pressing issue of these is the transfer of burial plots.
"According to the law, a local government or cemetery administration should consider, manage, investigate, and review cases. However, in the current environment, it is extremely cumbersome to have to identify the descendants of all the deceased, or problematic graves, and select the rightful heir in terms of usage rights.
More specific regulation is needed here," Voogla said.
The draft development plan for the cemetery bill is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
During the Soviet occupation of Estonia, cremations were not the norm, but this method of burial has become more common in recent years.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Merili Nael
Source: 'Aktuaalne kaamera'