Petition in Support of the Ukrainian Language

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is considering an unconstitutional bill to make Russian an official language in Ukraine.

We support Ukrainian as the state language of Ukraine and are extremely concerned over the debate on the Draft Law on Principles of the State Language Policy (“Draft Law”), which is scheduled to resume debate shortly in the Verkhovna Rada.

This Draft Law, authored by Party of Regions representatives Serhiy Kivalov and Vadym Kolisnechenko, seeks to modify the status of Russian and to allow its official use on a par with, or instead of, the state language at all levels of the government administration of Ukraine, and in education and other spheres of community life. 

This Draft Law contradicts the The Constitution of Ukraine, which states that “The State language in Ukraine is the Ukrainian language” (art. 10); and The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. 

The Ukrainian language has resisted several centuries of repression during Soviet and Russian tsarist rule in Ukraine where the Russian language was forceably introduced into areas of state and social activity, while the native language of the Ukrainian nation was suppressed. 

The Draft Law poses a serious threat to the future development of the Ukrainian language and weakens its role as the sole state language of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress considers the Draft Law on Principles of the State Language Policy to be a significant breach of the Constitution of Ukraine and a threat to Ukrainian as the sole state language in Ukraine. 

We therefore urge the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to immediately cease all debate on this Draft Law.