Mutual understanding and cooperation with Ukraine’s national minorities and indigenous people

The negative reaction of national minorities for the Article 7 of the Law on Education in Ukraine adopted in 2017 which, in their view, violated the right of national minorities to be taught in their own languages, became an indicator of lack of consensus between the national minorities and the Government of Ukraine in the educational issue. This caused serious tensions in Ukraine’s relations with the neighboring countries: Hungary and Romania. Bulgaria, Greece and Poland also expressed concern over the adoption of the mentioned Law. Although the transitional period of implementation of the language of instruction article in the Law on Education has been extended till 2023, it is obvious that it is necessary to intensify the dialogue between parties not only in this issue but also in other areas of cooperation.

Civil society may play a significant role in establishing an effective dialogue between the representatives of national minorities and the state authorities of Ukraine. In 2018-2019 experts of the Center for Public Diplomacy were involved into realization of the project «Education opportunities for young representatives of Ukraine’s national/ethnic minorities: preparing the future experts in international relations, human rights and multiculturalism» supported by the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine. Within the framework of this project the public events for representatives of the Crimean Tatar (Novooleksiyivka), Bulgarian (Odesa), Greek (Mariupol), Polish (Lviv), Romanian (Chernivtsi) and Hungarian (Uzhhorod) communities of Ukraine were successfully held. This project showed a great interest of national minorities and indigenous people of Ukraine in realization of such initiatives and intensification of cooperation with the representatives of public authorities and non-governmental organizations as well.

The Center for Public Diplomacy plans to keep on working in the direction of increasing cooperation with national minorities and indigenous people of Ukraine in various fields.