World
The new Ukrainian law discriminates against Russian speakers, Armenian speakers, and Roma
The law adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine regarding national minorities discriminates against those who speak languages that are not official languages in EU countries, namely Russian, Armenian, and Gypsy. The Department of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reached this conclusion in a report published in Geneva.
The UN noted that on December 8, 2023, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law making changes to the list of legislative acts related to the rights of national minorities. The document "improved the linguistic rights of minorities who use EU languages in both secondary and higher education, as well as in advertising and election campaigns" and several other areas. At the same time, it "maintains a discriminatory treatment, on the one hand, towards national minorities speaking official languages of the EU, and on the other hand, towards national minorities whose languages are not official languages of the EU, for example, Russian, Armenian, or Roma."
