Speeches and Interviews of the Permanent Representative

STATEMENT BY MR. ALEXANDER LUKASHEVICH, PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION, AT THE 1270th MEETING OF THE OSCE PERMANENT COUNCIL VIA VIDEO TELECONFERENCE
4 June 2020

On the violation of the rights of national minorities by the Ukrainian authorities

Mr. Chairperson,
On 6 June, Russian Language Day will be celebrated around the world, but it is unlikely to be officially commemorated in Ukraine. It is well known that the Ukrainian Government does not agree with the idea of the full preservation and development of the Russian language – or any other language apart from Ukrainian, despite the fact that the State’s obligation to guarantee the free development, use and protection of the Russian language and the languages of national minorities is enshrined in the country’s Constitution.
The authorities are continuing the policy of compulsory Ukrainization set by President Poroshenko. Under the pretext of protecting the State language, legislative acts have been adopted which significantly reduce the linguistic and educational rights of national minorities and the Russian-speaking inhabitants of Ukraine. We are talking about the Law on Supporting the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language, the Law on Education and the Law on Full General Secondary Education, which was signed by President Zelenskyi on 13 March.
According to the law on the State language, the Ukrainian language is to become mandatory in all spheres of life. The new practices are to be introduced through repressive measures rather than incentives. Fines will be imposed for violation of the law – in other words, the use of other languages in public. An oversight mechanism, the office of the “language ombudsperson”, has even been created. And this is despite the fact that according to the latest census, almost one in three citizens of Ukraine speaks Russian or a minority language (in fact, the number is much higher). Their views were clearly not taken into account when this new law was adopted. In that regard, it is worth citing the results of an opinion poll conducted in December 2019 by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation and the Razumkov Centre. It showed that 69 per cent of Ukrainians want to be able to freely use the Russian language.
The new fast-tracked education standards in Ukraine are no less severe. Their basic aim is to reduce the use of the native languages of the Russian-speaking population and of national minorities as much as possible. In particular, starting from September this year, all schools with instruction in Russian, Belarusian, Yiddish and other languages that are not languages of the European Union or of indigenous peoples must switch to Ukrainian. From 2023, education in their native language will also be unavailable for other national minorities, including Hungarians, Bulgarians and Romanians. Of course, there are still private schools, but they are a “drop in the ocean” given their small number and the high cost of education.
It is significant that the Russian language is subject to multiple discrimination in education – both in relation to the Ukrainian language and the languages of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine, and to the languages of the countries of the European Union, for which the entry into force of the new rules, as mentioned, has been delayed until 2023. Incidentally, in the current academic year in Ukraine, 281,000 children (7 per cent of the total number) have been studying in Russian, 17,000 in Hungarian, 16,000 in Romanian and 58,000 in Bulgarian. But even with these statistics, the Ukrainian Government gives preferential treatment only to the minority languages of EU countries and of indigenous peoples. In other words, Ukraine openly divides its own citizens, especially children, into first- and second-class people. This is unacceptable.
Authoritative bodies, including the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, have repeatedly pointed out that these legislative acts are unjust and at odds with Ukraine’s domestic and international obligations. The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, Lamberto Zannier, spoke about this very subject at today’s Permanent Council meeting. Despite President Zelenskyi’s pre-election promises and appeals by Ukrainian members of parliament, in particular the Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada Dmytro Razumkov, to re-examine the language law, the authorities have not taken any concrete steps to correct the language situation.
In addition to these laws, the administrative territorial reforms in the country are also introducing new dividing lines in inter-ethnic relations in Ukraine. In the first instance, they affect the Hungarian and Bulgarian minorities, whose ethnocultural communities are being artificially fragmented and dispersed for political reasons. As you know, the Bulgarian parliament protested on 20 May against the possible consequences of this “reform” for the Bulgarian minority. The Hungarians in Transcarpathia are also discontent. Their associations recently protested against the intention of the authorities to adjust the administrative borders within the region without taking account of the opinion of the local inhabitants.
It is a matter of concern that the Government’s policy of forced Ukrainization of all spheres of life, coupled with overt Russophobia at the official level, is becoming a catalyst for a rise in intolerance in society as a whole. Thus, on 27 January, nationalists from a number of organizations – Right Sector, National Squad, Freikorps – disrupted a peaceful rally in support of the Russian language and Russian-language schools. The radicals chanted anti-Russian slogans, sprayed gas and started fights. They even used physical force against elderly women. The police did nothing. There is no mention of prosecution of those responsible for the disruption. Another example: on 30 January in Dnipropetrovsk, youths from the National Corps disrupted the opening of the international film festival Film Assembly on the Dnieper, to which directors and writers from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Russia, Serbia and Sweden had been invited.
Educational reform is also producing a sorry harvest. On 7 March it became known that nationalists had harassed teachers at Lyceum No. 45 in Lviv, attended by around 1,000 students of different nationalities. It was said to be promoting “propaganda about the Russian world” and the “Russification of Ukrainian children”. On 11 April, the Ukrainian periodical Vesti reported on a campaign launched by nationalists against Pavel Viktor, a respected Ukrainian teacher, merely because he posted his Russian-language physics lessons on YouTube.
There are abundant examples of harassment on language grounds of entrepreneurs, singers, actors and ordinary Ukrainians, including children. We already spoke in detail here on 14 May about the dangerous rise in anti-Semitism in Ukraine. Attacks continue on Roma, whose crowded settlements are frequently the targets of brutal aggression. Incitement to ethnic and linguistic hatred in Ukraine is systematic and goes unpunished.
President Zelenskyi said in an interview that the language problem in Ukraine is “artificial”. In point of fact, it was created by the Maiden politicians to further their own interests with complete disregard for the interests of the Russian-speaking population and of national minorities and with tacit approval by the West. This has already led to a bloody internal conflict in Donbas.
We do not deny that every State has the right to introduce measures to promote and protect its State language. However, these measures should not be discriminatory, particularly in multi-ethnic societies like Ukraine.
We urge the Ukrainian Government to stop its discrimination against Russian-speaking inhabitants and national minorities contrary to its international obligations. The OSCE executive structures and participating States should seek concrete steps from the Ukrainian authorities to remedy the very alarming situation in Ukraine.
Thank you for your attention.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS BY MR. ALEXANDER LUKASHEVICH,
PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION,
AT THE 1270th MEETING OF THE OSCE PERMANENT COUNCIL
VIA VIDEO TELECONFERENCE
4 June 2020
On the violation of the rights of national minorities by the Ukrainian authorities

Mr. Chairperson,
Our Ukrainian colleague assures us of the legality of the measures implemented in Ukraine in the linguistic and educational spheres. If the problems regarding observance of the rights of national minorities are contrived, why do a number of authoritative international organizations and institutions point to them?
And they also note that the laws on education and the State language adopted by the Ukrainian authorities violate a number of Ukraine’s domestic and international legal obligations. In the first place, the laws contravene the country’s Constitution, Article 10 of which provides for the free development, use and protection of Russian and other languages of national minorities. The ban on the use of languages and the elimination of access to education in them negates this provision.
The laws on education and the State language are also incompatible with Article 53, which states that citizens belonging to national minorities are guaranteed by law the right to education in their native language. As has already been noted, from 2020 and 2023, respectively, neither Russian speakers nor minorities speaking the languages of European Union countries will be guaranteed access to education in their languages.
They also violate Article 11, which stipulates that the State shall promote the development of the ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious identity of indigenous peoples and national minorities in Ukraine, and Article 22, which states that the content and scope of existing rights and freedoms shall not be diminished in the adoption of new laws or in the amendment of laws that are in force.
The current linguistic and education legislation contravenes Article 24 of the Constitution, which stipulates that citizens have equal constitutional rights and freedoms and are equal before the law, notably in terms of language, and also Article 1, paragraph 1, of the Ukrainian Law on National Minorities, which states that citizens shall enjoy the protection of the State on an equal basis. Preferences for particular languages negate the principle of equality. The education legislation is also at odds with Article 6 of that law, regarding the possibility to study in one’s native language at State educational institutions. Incidentally, the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe makes particular mention of these national laws. Regarding international obligations, the new laws violate Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which has been ratified by Ukraine. This stipulates that “in those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess or practise their own religion, or to use their own language.” And yet all the legislative acts listed by us are aimed at restricting the use by Russian speakers and national minorities of their native languages.
Council of Europe norms are also being trampled upon. Ukraine has ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, in accordance with which the Ukrainian Government is obliged to protect and ensure the functioning of regional and minority languages in education, including secondary education (Article 8), in science, culture and politics, and in the work of the administrative authorities and
courts (Articles 7 to 10). In the accompanying declaration, Ukraine explicitly stipulated the applicability of its provisions to Russian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Gagauz, Greek, Romanian and other languages.
We would remind you that the Venice Commission has made it clear that in Ukraine international treaties come immediately after the Constitution and prevail over ordinary laws. This means that the law on the State language and other legislation on minorities have to be in conformity with them.
Consequently, measures for the protection of Russian and other regional and minority languages provided for in the European Charter should take precedence over Ukrainian laws, including the laws on the State language and both laws on education. In reality, the opposite is the case.
Ukraine is also failing to abide by its OSCE commitments. The language laws and both education laws violate the 1990 CSCE Copenhagen Document. Paragraph 34 of the Document states: “The participating States will endeavour to ensure that persons belonging to national minorities, notwithstanding the need to learn the official language or languages of the State concerned, have adequate opportunities for
instruction of their mother tongue or in their mother tongue.” Paragraph 35 states: “The participating States will respect the right of persons belonging to national minorities to effective participation in public affairs, including participation in the affairs relating to the protection and promotion of the identity of such minorities.” Of course, in the current circumstances, there is no guarantee of mother-tongue instruction let
alone the promotion of one’s identity.
The situation is also contrary to the provisions of the 1990 Charter of Paris, the 1999 Istanbul Summit Declaration and the Hague and Lund Recommendations of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities.
Several authoritative international bodies have repeatedly expressed their concern about respect for the rights of national minorities and compliance with obligations in that area. Thus, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in its report on the human rights situation in Ukraine for the period from 16 November 2019 to 15 February 2020 indicates that “legislation provides insufficient
guarantees for the protection and use of minority languages in the absence of a law on the realisation of the rights of indigenous peoples and national minorities.” It further emphasizes that “although the law on secondary education guarantees the instruction in the language of indigenous people along with instruction in Ukrainian, it fails to indicate the exact proportions. This raises concerns as to the level of protection provided for indigenous peoples’ linguistic rights.”
The Venice Commission of the Council of Europe has also expressed concerns. On 9 December 2019 it published its opinion on the Law on Supporting the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language and concluded that in the absence of a specific law on the protection and use of minority languages, the current legal framework does not strike a fair balance between strengthening the role of the Ukrainian language and providing sufficient guarantees of the linguistic rights of national minorities.
The OSCE High Commissioner Lamberto Zannier has repeatedly pointed out the absence of mechanisms for protecting the linguistic rights of minorities in connection with the adoption of this law and the need to eliminate the different attitude to the languages of the European Union compared with those of other countries.
It is clear that the language problem is not contrived. It is an instrument of the Ukrainian Government’s discriminatory policy. And instead of distorting the facts, Ukraine should stop violating its obligations.
Thank you for your attention.