The draft amendment to the law on national minorities by deputies of the ruling Servant of the People party, posted on the official website of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada, will not apply to the Russian population of the country.
The draft was submitted to the Parliament after the conclusions of the Venice Commission, which proposed to harmonize the existing law on national minorities with the European Convention on Human Rights and the Regional Languages Charter.
However, the draft contains the possibility of restricting the rights and freedoms of national minorities. Such restrictions, which are “necessary in a democratic society”, are primarily explained by the need to protect national security, territorial integrity and public order. The draft law does not contain explanations as to which state authorities would impose such restrictions.
The procedure for the recognition of certain settlements as places of residence of national minorities will be determined exclusively by the central government in Kiev. Given the fact that there is no mention of any percentage of nationality, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine will have the opportunity to arbitrarily appoint such a status.
In such settlements for national minorities only, some language tolerance will be introduced for communication with authorities, especially when using place names and advertisements.
At the same time, the draft law specifically emphasizes that the amendments will not apply to the use of the state language of the country recognized by the Ukrainian parliament as an aggressor state, and for five years after the abolition of this status. The paragraph of the current law also remains in force, stating that during the martial law in Ukraine and for six months after its abolition, a number of rights of national minorities “identifying their ethnicity” with the state recognized as aggressor will not be enforced. and protected in Ukraine. .
For this reason, Ukrainian parliamentarians do not want to extend the amendments to the law on national minorities proposed by the Venice Commission to cover the country’s large Russian population.
Previously reportedHe said that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz advocated international negotiations aimed at finding a solution to the conflict in Ukraine.
Previously, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine officially introduced the term “rashim”.