National minorities rights, land confiscation, and specifics of the admission campaign for the next academic year

MPs want to address the issue of national minorities rights, allow land confiscation for the needs of critical infrastructure, and define specifics of the admission campaign for schoolchildren.  

Regulations on the issue of national minorities 

Draft bill # 8224 of November 24, 2022 

Cosponsors: a group of MPs from the Servant of the People faction with Taras Tarasenko and Yuriy Boyko from Platform for Life and Peace as first signatories. 

Who is affected: representatives of national minorities (communities), citizens, educational establishments, media, businesses, government bodies, and local governments. 

Summary of the bill: 

• guarantees the following rights to national minorities and defines specifics of their application: 
  • to self-identification: a person can freely decide whether he or she should be considered a part of the minority 
  • to freedom of peaceful assembly and association 
  • to freedom of expression of thoughts and beliefs: the right to freely gather, store, use, and distribute information in the language of a minority orally, in writing, or in any other way 
  • to participate in political, economic, and social life 
  • to freely use languages of the national minorities: 
    • to organize public events in the languages of the minorities 
    • to use languages of the minorities in media, to create their own media 
    • to publish printed materials in languages of the minorities with funding from local budgets even if such materials are not compliant with the Law on the State Language 
    • to ignore the requirements of the Law on the State Language for specialized bookstores for minorities 
    • to duplicate official names on government bodies and communal enterprises 
    • to use two languages, one of which is a language of the minority, in materials for political campaigning if distributed in localities where representatives of that national minority traditionally live 
  • to education in private educational establishments of secondary education (funded by people or enterprises) and freely chose the working language 
  • to preserve cultural identity 
• funding for the implementation of national minorities rights will be provided by the government budget (via a special program) and local budgets 
• popularization and propaganda of the aggressor state, its government bodies, the Russian regime, the symbols of the invasion, etc. will be prohibited. 

What is right: Ukraine will fulfill one of the requirements for the EU candidate state. 

What is wrong: 

• the draft bill on the issue should be prepared and submitted by the Cabinet as the highest body of state executive power that has all information and data necessary to properly prepare legislative initiative on the issue 
• the draft bill proposes to grant the national minorities much more rights than are now guaranteed to the indigenous people. In particular, regarding the use of their languages in media or education 
• the draft bill goes against a number of requirements of the Law on the State Language, in particular, regarding public events, printed products regulations, media, bookstores, etc. If it is adopted, the Law on the State Language will become senseless for the most part 
• the rights to duplicate official names, open specialized bookstores, and exceptional regulations on book printing will increase the threat of separatism and detachment of localities with a significant number of representatives of national minorities from the Ukrainian-speaking space 

• the establishment of private educational establishments with a working language different from the state language could stop the process of integration of representatives of national minorities into the systems of education and culture in Ukraine. Graduates of such schools will have trouble getting higher education or a job in Ukraine 
• some states could abuse the provisions of this draft bill and create closed communities of representatives of national minorities who do not want to integrate into Ukraine. This is a direct threat to national security 
• the draft bill is a return to the practices of the so-called Kivalov-Kolesnichenko language law — the establishment of the environment to oppress and supersede the Ukrainian language. The proposed draft bill goes against the constitutional status of the Ukrainian language as a state language and violates the constitutional requirement to facilitate the development of the Ukrainian language and promote its usage in all spheres of life. 

Alternative solution: to wait until the draft bill currently developed by the Cabinet of Ministers is ready. MPs should make draft bill by the Cabinet a priority since it will be the responsibility of the Cabinet to implement the policy on national minorities rights. 

Procedure for land confiscation for the needs of critical infrastructure 

Draft bill # 8225 of November 24, 2022 

Cosponsors: a group of MPs from the Servant of the People faction with Mykola Kyrychenko as the first signatory. 

Who is affected: landowners, local governments, government bodies, critical infrastructure enterprises, citizens, courts, and businesses. 

Summary of the bill: 

• the state will be allowed to alienate the land for social needs if it is needed for the construction or maintenance of critical infrastructure objects of categories 1 and 2 (especially important objects of vital importance: disruption in their work would result in a regional or state-wide crisis situation) 
• permission to alienate the land will be valid under martial law and for 10 years after martial law ends. Confiscation will be conducted in the following manner: 
  • without a court decision 
  • without consideration for the rights of other individuals who could claim the right to this land 
  • without the consent of landowners, land users, and government bodies 
  • without monetary compensation for the confiscation of land or real estate objects if this land belongs to a territorial community; with monetary compensation if the land belongs to citizens 
• decisions on the confiscation of land will be made by the Cabinet upon the request from the Ministry of Infrastructure 
• it will be prohibited to suspend a decision by the Cabinet concerning the alienation of the land for the social needs for the construction or maintenance of critical infrastructure even for the time while the lawsuit against this decision is still in court.  

What is wrong: 

• individuals, companies, and local governments have property rights. To violate these rights will be against the obligations of Ukraine under the European Convention on Human Rights 

• land confiscation without monetary compensation is a significant depreciation of local government bodies, their rights and lawful interests. Local self-governance is a separate system of power that is not subordinate to the Cabinet, the Verkhovna Rada, or the President 
• the decision to enforce the law for 10 years after martial law ends is excessive. The draft bill does not provide any arguments in favor of such a long period. 

Alternative solution: to withdraw the draft bill from consideration. It does not help to solve the problems of critical infrastructure but instead creates corruption risks. 

Specifics of the admission campaign for the academic year 2022/2023 

Draft bill # 8228 of November 24, 2022 

Cosponsors: a group of MPs from Servant of the People, Trust, For the Future, and Restoration of Ukraine factions with Larysa Bilozir as the first signatory. 

Who is affected: schoolchildren, prospective students, students, their parents, educators, schools, and universities. 

Summary of the bill: for 2023, the following exceptions will be allowed: 

• to admit students to programs offering Junior Bachelor’s, Bachelor’s, and Master’s degrees under a special procedure that will be defined by the Ministry of Education 

• to ignore the requirements of the dedicated law for admissions to vocational schools 
• schoolchildren completing their full secondary education will be allowed to skip their state final examinations. 

What is right: the rules for admission campaigns for 2022/2023 will be defined in advance and thus will be predictable for all interested parties. 

What is wrong: 

• a draft bill on the issue should have been submitted by the Cabinet at the request of the Ministry of Education. MPs’ meddling in the specifics of state policy on education could have negative effects on the government, schoolchildren, prospective students, and students 

• the end of the academic year will come not soon. To decide on the future admission campaign without considering the events of the spring and summer of 2023 could be premature. 

Alternative solution: to wait for the decision by the Ministry of Education concerning the state policy on the end of the academic year 2022/2023.