The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has adopted a resolution with recommendations to Ukraine on the law on education in terms of minority languages.
The relevant resolution was supported by 82 delegates, 17 abstained, and 11 people voted against it.
Before voting, many amendments were had been submitted to the draft resolution. Proposals for amendments were not made public before the vote. Not all amendments were clearly voiced during the debate.
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"Under these circumstances, the Assembly considers it premature to take a stand on any legal issue. However, the Assembly believes that it is important to fulfill the commitments based on the European Convention on Human Rights (ETS No. 5), the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (ETS No. 157, 'Framework Convention'), and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, and to help re-establish a constructive dialogue between the different parties concerned. In this respect, for the Assembly, three interconnected principles must guide the stakeholders towards more consensual arrangements."
The first one is that knowledge of the official language of a State is a factor of social cohesion and integration and it is legitimate for States to promote the learning of the official language and to ask that the State language be a language of education for all.
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The third one is the principle of non-discrimination. This principle not only applies to the recognition and effective protection of the rights of minorities, as enshrined in the Framework Convention, and of the specific rights enshrined in the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, but also to "the enjoyment of any right set forth by law" according to Article 1 of Protocol No. 12 to the European Convention on Human Rights (ETS No. 177).
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"In particular, the new law entails a heavy reduction in the rights previously recognized to 'national minorities' concerning their own language of education," PACE said.
"The Assembly therefore recommends that the Ukrainian authorities reconsider the issue of education in the language of minorities, having as a reference a flexible model of bilingual education for all persons belonging to 'indigenous nations of Ukraine' and 'national minorities', with no discrimination. In concrete terms, a possible benchmark could be at least 60% of education curricula in the Ukrainian language and up to 40% in the language of the minority," reads the resolution.
It is also reported that in planning the implementation of the reform, flexibility should be ensured to avoid hasty changes prejudicing the quality of education provided to school and university students belonging to national minorities.
In this respect, a three-year transitional period may prove to be too short. Therefore, the Assembly urges the Ukrainian authorities to also introduce flexibility regarding the length of the process and allow for arrangements tailored to the concrete circumstances of the communities concerned and the situation in different areas.
As UNIAN reported earlier, on September 25, President Poroshenko signed the law on education. Its Article 7 on the language of command in Ukraine became a matter of concern for several EU countries: Poland, Romania, Hungary, Greece, and Bulgaria.
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The new law introduces a 12-year secondary education, while the language of command in educational facilities shall be Ukrainian.
Petro Poroshenko instructed the foreign ministry and the ministry of education and science to hold necessary consultations with the European partners, including the Council of Europe.
On September 28, Pavlo Klimkin submitted Article 7 of the new law for the assessment by the Venice Commission. The Commission will have issued an opinion on the matter by December.