The Law on Minorities amended in recent days by the Ukrainian parliament does not further ensure the constitutional rights of national minorities in Ukraine and does not restore their previous rights, states the Hungarian Cultural Union of Subcarpathian Ukraine (KMKSZ), according to the official Hungarian agency MTI, quoted by News .ro.
School in Ukraine (in Berehove / Beregszasz) with teaching in HungarianPhoto: ATTILA KISBENEDEK / AFP / Profimedia
“We note with regret that when amending the Law on Minorities, the constructive proposals of Hungarian organizations were not taken into account, even this time, regarding the amendments”, wrote KMKSZ.
The adopted law eliminated one of the important criteria for defining national minorities, that is, the fact that its representatives traditionally live on the territory of Ukraine, and thus, the concept of national minority was emptied of its content. “This results in the exclusion of any collective rights related to minorities”, the statement emphasizes.
According to the statement of the KMKSZ presidency, also sent to the Hungarian press agency MTI, “the fact that several provisions of the law are discriminatory, or have only a declarative character, can leave room for arbitrary interpretations”.
The recently adopted amendment does not guarantee minorities, nor in the future, the application of the rights guaranteed to them by the Constitution and by international documents, nor does it restore their previous rights, the KMKSZ statement states.
The new law on national minorities (communities) in Ukraine was adopted by the Ukrainian Parliament in December 2022. After, in June of this year, the Venice Commission criticized several passages of the law, on August 13 the Kyiv legislature took a proposal to amend the law was submitted.
The adoption of the law on minorities is one of the important conditions for the start of the accession negotiations of Ukraine to the EU, points out the Hungarian agency MTI.
