A/HRC/7/19/Add.2 page 7 12. An important demographic distinction is between citizens, foreigners and persons of undefined nationality (stateless). Presently, there are 112,049 stateless persons in Estonia, which amounts to 8 per cent of the population. Tallinn, with 51,253 stateless persons, and EastVirumaa are especially affected. The majority of stateless persons (around 52 per cent) were born in Estonia. C. Political structure 13. Estonia is a parliamentary democracy whose government is headed by the Prime Minister. The Head of State is the President. The unicameral Parliament (Riigikogu) is composed of 101 members and is elected through a system of proportional representation. A multiparty system is in place, and government has traditionally been coalitional. Only citizens have the right to vote in national elections. Non-citizens, however, have the right to vote in municipal elections. D. International human rights instruments 14. Estonia is party to the core international human rights instruments, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its first Optional Protocol, the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). At the European level, Estonia has ratified the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. 15. Estonia is not a party to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. 16. Estonia has yet to become a party to other legal instruments that are relevant for questions of racism and discrimination, including Protocol No. 12 to the European Convention on Human Rights on general non-discrimination (signed, but not ratified), the European Convention on Nationality (not signed), the Convention on the Participation of Foreigners in Local Public Life at Local Level (not signed) and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (not signed). E. Methodology 17. The Special Rapporteur carried out extensive meetings with authorities at the executive, legislative and judiciary branches to collect their views and opinions concerning racism and xenophobia in Estonia, the adequacy of the existing legal framework and the programmes and policies adopted by the authorities to fight these problems. Additionally, an agenda with civil society organizations, communities and minority groups, victims of discrimination and journalists was organized. 18. In order to comprehensively and objectively assess the situation, the Special Rapporteur structured his meetings with all his interlocutors around three questions: (i) Is there racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in Estonia? (ii) If this is the case, what are their main manifestations and expressions and the communities affected? (iii) What are or should be the governmental policies and programmes to fight these phenomena at the political, legal and cultural levels?