UN calls on Ukraine to authorise use of all minority languages

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has said that all languages existing in Ukraine should be available for use.

He called on the Ukrainian authorities to ensure the protection of minority rights, Kommersant reports.

Turk presented to the Human Rights Council a report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on human rights in Ukraine.

According to the document, the law on minorities adopted by the Verkhovna Rada in September suspends some rights of Russian speakers.

As the UN representative said, it is important to "constantly monitor the vision of tomorrow" in order to "prepare for the kind of Ukraine in which people would like to live after the end of this war".

"This requires ensuring social inclusion for all communities and protecting the rights of minorities, including the right to use all languages spoken in Ukraine," Turk said.

The Venice Commission earlier concluded that the provisions of the Ukrainian laws on education, language and minorities contradict international agreements and do not comply with European norms and values.

In August, the Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada) proposed to relax language norms for minorities, except for Russians. Hungary also complained about Ukraine's adoption of laws discriminating against Transcarpathian Hungarians and threatened that it would not approve Ukraine's admission to the EU unless these laws were cancelled.