It emerged last November that the Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs had commissioned the law firm Sorainen to draft a bill merging the Gender Equality Act and the Equal Treatment Act, at a cost of €16,000. However, institutions involved in working on equality issues were kept in the dark about this, and never saw the bill.

In the six months since, the bill has not been made public, nor have there been any other public developments in connection with it. Gender Equality and Equal Treatment Commissioner Christian Veske said he has asked unsuccessfully for the bill several times, and now it would feel strange to request it again.

Izmailova has now written to the Data Protection Inspectorate (AKI) to inquire whether the ministry is in fact allowed to keep the bill classified, or whether perhaps it should be published as a ministry-commissioned analysis or study instead.

Veske added that he believes it would be polite to respond to respond to his inquiries as well — especially given the lack of progress since, and the fact that, in the meantime, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications is currently working to transpose two EU equality-related directives that were supposed to have been incorporated into the bill in question.

Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs Liisa Pakosta (Eesti 200) said she definitely intends to move forward with the matter, and is waiting to meet with Minister of Economic Affairs and Industry Erkki Keldo (Reform), who is responsible for equality policy.

"To figure out how to proceed at all," Pakosta explained.

"Busy ministers — it's been a real challenge to find the time," she continued. "But right now, work is underway to draw up the government's activity plan, and new work plans will be made based on that. I do definitely want to get this done; I fought to have the two bills merged back when I was the gender equality commissioner already."

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