On June 5th, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted in the first reading a draft law on principles of state language policy (#9073), initiated by V. Kolesnichenko and S. Kivalov. As stated in the explanatory note, once the draft law is adopted, Russian language becomes a regional language in 13 administrative territorial units of Ukraine (out of 27).

Draft law adoption was accompanied by massive protests near the Parliament and fights between police and opponents of the legislative proposal.

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On 26 of August, 2011 parliamentarians V. Kolesnichenko and S. Kivalov introduced to the VR a draft law on principles of state language policy (#9073).

The draft law aims at defining principles, objectives and tasks of the official language policy of Ukraine, status and way of using languages in different spheres of state and public life, to set up responsibility for violating the language legislation as well as to introduce amendments concerning language issues to a number of laws of Ukraine. The draft law text includes a note saying that the main language to be used for office work and documentation of the bodies of state power and local self-government is the official language of the state. However, the part 3 ofArticle 8 of the law proposes that within the territory where a regional language (languages) is (are) spoken, it (they) can be also used for office work and documentation of the bodies of state power and local self-government. Regional language (languages) can also be used for the correspondence with the bodies of state power of higher level. 

According to the document, legal proceedings in civil, economical, administrative and criminal cases should be run using the state language. Within the territory where a regional language (languages) is (are) spoken, proceeding may be run in regional languages if mutually agreed (part 3 of article 8 of the law).

Analysis of the draft law "On principles of state language policy" (#9073), its correlation with the European Charter for Regional
or Minority Languages (ECRML).

- In general the draft law “On principles of state language policy” uses only some of the definitions from the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages[1]. The Law of Ukraine “On ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages” № 802-IV was adopted on 15th of May, 2003. The main challenge for its ratification was a row of issues related to Russian language, because defining this language as a regional one or a minority language till now threatens the existence of Ukrainian language with regard to its not juridical, but factual status.

In particular, the National Census held in 2001 showed that population of Ukraine is 48 240 902 people, and among them there are 134 minority groups who identified themselves as citizens of Ukraine. The majority is made up by ethnical Ukrainians - 37 541 693 people, Russians - 8 334 141, Belarussians - 275 800, Moldovans - 258 600, Crimean Tatars - 248 200, Bulgarians - 204 600. Altogether, the total number of representatives of all minorities equals 22,2% of the general population of Ukraine. The  Pluri-ethnicity of the population which is found in Ukraine has a clear specific: out of all ethnic non-Ukrainians 80% are made up by ethnic Russians. Another complex aspect of Ukrainian pluri-ethnicity is the issue of identifying the language identity as such.

In particular, 5 544 729 of ethnic Ukrainians according to the National Census 2001 consider Russian to be their native language. Similar qualitative and quantative indicators make us assume that currently in Ukraine there are three big national linguistic groups: Ukrainian-speaking Ukrainians, Russian-speaking Ukrainians and Russian-speaking Russians. In this context it is pretty hard to speak about Russian as a minority language.
 
- The Ukrainian variant (Law of Ukraine “On ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages” № 802-IV was adopted on 15th of May, 2003) among regional or minority languages includes Belarussian, Bulgarian, Gagauz, Greek, Jewish, Crimean Tatar, Moldavian, German, Polish, Russian, Slovak and Hungarian. On the other hand, the question of using Karaim, Krymchak languages is not yet settled, similarly as is the question of protecting Jewish language – Hebrew or Yiddish. Additionally, the draft law includes adoption of decrees on regional identification with regard to 18 languages and at the same time the LoU “On ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages” defines 13 regional languages.

- However, the draft law is in line with political traditions settled down in the result of political negotiations which were held after the ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages with regard to Russian language which can be hardly considered as a minority language. According to calculation of the Main Legal department of the Verkhovna Rada, “Russian language is mentioned in the draft law 9 times, it is at the first place in the list of regional or minority languages; part 1 Article 10 foresees the possibility for the highest bodies of state power to publish documents in Ukrainian, Russian or other regional or minority languages”[2].

- Separate norms proposed by the lawmakers do not correspond to the norms of the Constitution of Ukraine and international documents ratified by Ukraine, in particular the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine as of 14th of December, 1999 #10 рп/99 regarding the  official explanation of the Article 10 of the Constitution of Ukraine about the use of official language of the state. The draft law includes compilations of separate definitions used in the Charter such as “region”, “regional or minority language” etc, which do not correspond to the initial definitions used in the document and the existing definitions used in Ukrainian legislation, which f.i. defines “a region” as “a territory of the Autonomous republic of Crimea, oblast, city of Kyiv and Sevastopol”, but does not  speak about the rayon or village as proposed by the parliamentarians.

- The draft law proposes to protect languages of national minorities by identifying and protecting “regional or minority languages” as the territory of concrete administrative-territorial units with a population of over 10% of regional languages speakers. These territories may vary from the level of a region to a rayon, city or a village. The rights of minorities to speak their language according to the document “should be legislatively protected in the spheres of state management, education, court system, culture, mass media, advertising” etc. At the same time the draft law does not include a parity mechanism for law implementation in the cases when several minorities or language communities live in the same territory, or the speakers of minority language live dispersed and do not make up 10% of one region's population. Moreover, the borders of administrative-territorial units do not always correspond to the place where a minority lives. It should be also mentioned that the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages does not include a norm about a 10% barrier for using the mechanism of language protection.

- The draft law proposes to use regional or minority languages alongside with a state language” almost throughout the whole territory of Ukraine. However, it is still a disputable question since regional authorities and bodies of local self-government are not competent in defining “regional languages”, as the Constitution (art.10) does not provide them with a right to set a regional or minority language alongside with the state language at public administration level. In fact, adoption of these norms will cause the reviewing of corresponding Constitutional norms.

- At the same time the Legal department of the Verkhovna Rada fairly notices that the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, in the list of steps that should be taken in order to protect and develop those languages, does not foresee a necessity to adopt special decisions by the bodies of state power or local self-government about “announcing regional language as a language spread at the territory of a concrete administrative-territorial unit”, but includes measures aiming on popularizing the use of regional or minority languages in public life according to the part 2 Article 2 of the Charter. By adopting a law, regional languages should be used alongside with the state language” in the spheres of education, mass media, public administration in most of the regions of Ukraine which does not correspond to the Art. 10 of the Constitution of Ukraine.

- Amending 33 laws and bylaws which regulate the sphere of education, cinematography, court system, as it is foreseen by the draft law, will significantly limit the use of official language of the state. These changes may also cover other fields and policies outside the language issue. Yet regional languages should be used “alonside with the state language” in the spheres of education, mass media, public administration in most of the regions of Ukraine which does not correspond to the Art. 10 of the Constitution of Ukraine.

The draft law does not include information about the sources of funding for initiatives in the sphere of language policy. In particular, it is mentioned that the draft law does not need any additional budget funds as funding is already foreseen for the development and usage of Ukrainian as a state language and for the implementation of the LoU “On ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages”. However, it seems quite unrealistic as, if the law is adopted, it may cover wider spheres in education, advertising and public services.

At the same time it is still not clear why Ukraine would need such language integration since the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages clearly defines that “protection and encouragement of regional or minority languages should not be to the detriment of the official languages and the need to learn them”.

Yuliya Tyshchenko, Ukrainian center for independent political research

The article is prepared within the EU-funded project entitled “Enhanced civic engagement with reforms in Ukraine in the framework of European Neighbourhood Policy”.

[1] Development of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages lasted for almost 35 years (1957-1992), which speak about a complicated process of settling its conceptual principles among different parties. The Charter was only ready to be signed on 5th of November 1992 and came into force only on 1st March, 1998 after the fifth country joined it (Art. 19 of the document). In 2005 30 out of 46 members states of the Council of Europe signed the Charter, 19 ratified it. Some of the member states did not join the Charter. In general, to ratify it the state should adopt 35 norms of the document and ratify it with three levels of obligations. Ukraine did it to the maximum. The Preamble states that the main aim of the document is protection of the historical regional or minority languages of Europe, some of which are in danger of eventual extinction, contributes to the maintenance and development of Europe's cultural wealth and traditions. The document stresses the necessity of intercultural dialogue and multilingualism and mentions that “the protection and encouragement of regional or minority languages should not be to the detriment of the official languages and the need to learn them”. Ratifying the document is was one of Ukraine’s obligations when becoming the member state of the Council of Europe. In particular Ukraine had to sign and ratify the Charter within one year after becoming the member state. The document was signed on 2nd of May, 1996, however the process of its ratification and implementation lasted for several years.

[2] Resolution on the draft law “On principles of state language policy” (#9073)