Ukrainian Parliament Amends Laws on National Minorities’ Rights

Lawmakers have amended the laws of Ukraine concerning the rights of national minorities, taking into account the expert assessment of the Council of Europe, said Yaroslav Zhelezniak, a member of the Holos faction.

"The law ... has been adopted … This is a modified version by all factions," Zhelezniak wrote on the Telegram channel.

According to him, draft law No. 10288-1 on amendments to some laws of Ukraine, taking into account the expert assessment of the Council of Europe and its bodies on the rights of national minorities (societies) in certain areas, was supported by 317 deputies at the plenary session of the Verkhovna Rada on Friday, Dec. 8.

He recalled that the adoption of the bill is one of the recommendations of the European Commission, the implementation of which is necessary to start negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the European Union.

The bill amends the laws "On Local Self-Government in Ukraine," "On Higher Education," "On Education," "On Ensuring the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the State language," "On Full General Secondary Education," "On National Minorities (Societies) of Ukraine", "On media".

According to the draft law, privately owned institutions of higher education have the right to freely choose the language of instruction, which is the official language of the European Union, while ensuring the study of the state language as a separate academic discipline.

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The draft law guarantees the right to use the language of the relevant national minority in the educational process along with the State language.According to the document, persons belonging to national minorities of Ukraine, whose languages are the official languages of the EU, and began to receive general secondary education before Sep. 1, 2018 in the language of the relevant national minority, have the right to continue their education in this language.

As the explanatory note to the draft law says, restrictions on the languages of national minorities (communities), which are the state (official) language of the state recognized by the Verkhovna Rada as an aggressor state or an occupying state, are transferred from the final and transitional provisions of the laws of Ukraine to the body of documents, and therefore do not have a time frame.