Old Law Needs Facelift

Toward the end of last week the newly formed parliamentary Human Rights Committee jointly with the State Committee on Nationalities and Migration held round table to mark the ten years since Verkhovna Rada adopted the Law On National Minorities in Ukraine. According Hryhory Sereda, head of the State Committee on Nationalities and Migration, since the law was adopted 35 ethnic groups have set up 778 public organizations. Of these, 29 enjoy the all-Ukrainian status. Incidentally, at the time the law was in the works 186 national minorities associations were operating with just four enjoying the all-Ukrainian status. Nonetheless, as Mr. Sereda put it, presently there is a need for new laws and amendments to current legislation. Hennady Udovenko, head of the parliamentary Human Rights Committee, also underscored the need for a new national minorities law. As he put it, new legislation is needed to deal with the problem of budget shortfalls to fund national minorities associations and communities, which are largely financed according to the leftover principle. Simultaneously, according to Deputy Udovenko, the language issue also needs to be regulated. Ethnic groups demand that lectures in institutions of higher education be delivered in the languages of the national minorities. The committee maintains though that the official language should be the language of prevalent use. According to Yosyp Zissels, executive vice president of the Congress of National Communities in Ukraine, the law from ten years ago is out of touch with the realities of life. It does not provide for problems connected with education of national minorities, social security, cultural education of the young, or funding of national communities, reports Iryna KUKHAR, The Day.