Fourth Periodical Report Presented to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in Accordance with Article 15 of the Charter
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Strasbourg, 4 September 2019 MIN-LANG (2019) PR 7 EUROPEAN CHARTER FOR REGIONAL OR MINORITY LANGUAGES Fourth periodical report presented to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in accordance with Article 15 of the Charter UKRAINE THE FOURTH PERIODIC REPORT PROVIDED BY UKRAINE ON IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EUROPEAN CHARTER FOR REGIONAL OR MINORITY LANGUAGES (it is provided in accordance with the Article 15 of the Charter) Kyiv, December 2018 CONTENT INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………. 3 PART І General provisions …………………………………………………………. 4 1.1. Laws of Ukraine on languages ………………………………………………… 4 1.2. Demographic situation and changes in government policy and legislation…. 6 1.3. State funding for the implementation of events related to the European Charter for regional or minority languages …………………………………….... 7 PART II Application of provisions of Part II of the Charter 9 ………………………... Article 7 Purposes and principles ………………………………………………… 9 PART III 3.1. Activities aimed at implementing the provisions of Part III of the 22 Charter (Articles 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14) BELARUSIAN LANGUAGE ………………………………………………………... 22 BULGARIAN LANGUAGE………………………………………………………... .. 27 CRIMEAN TATAR LANGUAGE …………………………………………………. 33 GAGAUZ LANGUAGE………………………………………………………………. 39 GERMAN LANGUAGE …………………………………………………………….. 42 LANGUAGES OF GREEK MINORITY: MODERN GREEK, RUMEIKA AND URUM………………………………………. 57 HUNGARIAN LANGUAGE………………………………………………………… 62 MOLDOVAN LANGUAGE………………………………………………………… 76 POLISH LANGUAGE ……………………………………………………………….. 83 ROMANIAN LANGUAGE…………………………………………………………… 99 RUSSIAN LANGUAGE……………………………………………………………….. 111 SLOVAK LANGUAGE……………………………………………………………… 131 LANGUAGES OF JEWISH MINORITY: HEBREW, YIDDISH………………… 140 3.2. Performance of obligations under Article 9 regarding all the languages that are recognized by the Law of Ukraine “On Ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages”………………………...………...………........ 146 3.3. Performance of obligations under Article 10 regarding all the languages that are recognized by the Law of Ukraine “On Ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages” …………………………...………...........…… 149 ANNEX 1 Information regarding sphere of education………………………………………… 155 ANNEX 2 Scope of programs of own production in languages of ethnic minorities………… 158 ANNEX 3 Scope of budget funding aimed at meeting the educational, cultural and information needs of the representatives of ethnic minorities in Ukraine………… 160 3 INTRODUCTION The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (hereinafter referred to as the Charter) was signed by Ukraine on May 2, 1996 and ratified by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on May 15, 2003 by the relevant law (Law of Ukraine dd May 15, 2003 No. 802-IV “On Ratification of the European European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages”). The instrument of accession to this international agreement was submitted by Ukraine for keeping to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe on September 19, 2005. The Charter entered into force in Ukraine on January 1, 2006. In accordance with the Law on the ratification of the Charter, Ukraine has undertaken the following obligations: 2. The provisions of the Charter are applied to the languages of such ethnic minorities of Ukraine: Belarusian, Bulgarian, Gagauz, Greek, Jewish, Crimean Tatar, Moldovan, German, Polish, Russian, Romanian, Slovak and Hungarian. 3. Ukraine has undertaken obligations in accordance with parts I, II, IV, V of the Charter, except for paragraph 5 of Article 7 of Part II. 4. The following clauses and subclauses of Articles 8-14 of Part III of the Charter are applied for each language that is covered by the provisions of the Charter in accordance with Article 2 of this Law, a) clauses “a (iii)”, “b (iv)”, “c (iv)”, “d (iv)”, “e (iii)”, “f (iii)”, “g”, “h”, “i” of clause 1 and clause 2 of Article 8; b) clauses “a (iii)”, “b (iii)”, “c (iii)” of clause 1, clause “c” of paragraph 2 and clause 3 of Article 9; c) clauses "a", "c", "d", "e", "f", "g" of clause 2, clause "c" of clause 4 of Article 10; d) clauses “a (iii)”, “b (ii)”, “c (ii)”, “d”, “e (i)”, “g” of clause 1, clauses 2 and 3 of Article 11; 4 e) clauses “a”, “b”, “c”, “d”, “f”, “g” of clause 1 and clauses 2 and 3 of Article 12; e) clauses “b”, “c” of clause 1 of Article 13; f) clauses “a”, “b” of Article 14. 5. When applying the provisions of the Charter, activities, aimed at establishing the Ukrainian language as the state language, its development and functioning in all spheres of public life throughout Ukraine, are not considered as the ones that obstruct or threaten the preservation or development of languages that are covered by the provisions of the Charter in accordance with Article 2 of this Law. According to this law, Ukraine has undertaken to protect the languages of 13 national minorities, which are used on its territory. We also note that the Text of the Fourth periodic report was prepared by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine under unprecedented conditions in a situation, where the state does not have recommendations approved by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, and it is based on information and analytical materials provided by central executive authorities, regional state administrations, ethnic minority organizations, considering suggestions and comments from the public. PART I 1. General provisions 1.1. Laws of Ukraine on languages The legislation of Ukraine on languages consists of the Constitution of Ukraine, Declaration of the Rights of Nationalities of Ukraine, laws of Ukraine "On ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages", "On Ethnic Minorities in Ukraine", "On ratification of the framework Convention for the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of National Minorities" and special legislation, which includes: laws of Ukraine "On Citizenship of Ukraine", "On Public Associations", "On Education", "On Printed Mass Media (Press) in Ukraine", "On Television and Radio Broadcasting", "On Culture", "On Local Government in Ukraine", "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations", Civil code of 5 Ukraine, Civil Procedural Code of Ukraine, Family Code of Ukraine, Code of Administrative Procedure of Ukraine, Criminal Procedural Code of Ukraine and other normative and legal acts that regulate the use of languages, including international agreements, agreed to be binding by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. It is stipulated by the Article 10 of the Constitution of Ukraine that the state language in Ukraine is the Ukrainian language. The state provides comprehensive development and functioning of Ukrainian language in all spheres of public life throughout Ukraine. The free development, use and protection of ethnic minorities’ languages of Ukraine is guaranteed in Ukraine. The state promotes the learning of languages of international communication. The use of languages in Ukraine is guaranteed by the Constitution of Ukraine. During 2012-2018 the Law "On principles of state language policy" was valid in Ukraine. However, as it was established by the constitutional Court of Ukraine by its Decision as of February 28, 2018 No. 2-R, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has violated of procedure of consideration and adoption of the draft law, which was the basis for the recognition of this law as unconstitutional in accordance with article 152 of the Constitution of Ukraine. Now in Ukraine the free development, use and protection of languages of ethnic minorities is guaranteed. It is determined by the Article 11 of the Constitution of Ukraine that the state promotes the consolidation and development of Ukrainian nation, its historical consciousness, traditions and culture, development of ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious identity of all indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities of Ukraine. The matter of language of education is regulated by the Article 7 of the law of Ukraine "On Education", according to which persons that belong to ethnic minorities of Ukraine are provided with guarantees of the right to study in public educational institutions in order to obtain preschool and primary education, along with the state language and the language of respective ethnic minority. This right is implemented through the establishment of the individual forms (groups) in accordance with the legislation, where teaching is in the language of respective ethnic minority or 6 indigenous people and it is along with the state language and it is not applied in forms (groups), where teaching is in Ukrainian language. On May 31, 2018 the order of the President of Ukraine № 156/2018 "On urgent measures to strengthen the state status of the Ukrainian language and promoting a common cultural space of Ukraine" was signed. According to this order the expert group that consisted of representatives of state authorities and local self-government authorities, civil society institutions, leading domestic scientists and international experts that include the representatives of ethnic minorities was set up. The purpose of the expert group is to conduct comprehensive analysis of the current linguistic and cultural situation in Ukraine, further development of the criteria for evaluating effectiveness of state language politics and policy in the field of culture and monitoring mechanisms of the linguistic and cultural situation on a regular basis. On October 4, 2018 four bills aimed at regulation of the state language policy were presented and discussed at the plenary session of the Verkhovna Rada