Language Rights in Ukraine

What is it about?

The Ukrainian political elite in recent years adopted a series of legislative measures restricting the language rights of minorities. The representatives of the Hungarian national minority in Ukraine stress that these legislative measures contrary to Ukraine’s international commitments. The Ukrainian government and some researchers, however, claim that the recent steps of language policy do not violate Ukraine’s international commitments in any way. In this article we examine: what commitments Ukraine entered into when ratifying the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, and in the light of the last report of the Committee of Experts of the Charter by the implementation of the Charter in Ukraine we seek to establish whether, in relation to the protection of minorities’ language rights, Ukraine is complying with the obligations it accepted when ratifying the Charter.

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