Russia's Upper House Adopts Bill Condemning Ukraine's Education Law

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Wednesday, Russia's Federation Council senators adopted a statement severely criticizing Ukraine's recent law on education. According to them, this law violates human rights and the EU, OSCE and UN must condemn it.

"We call on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, as well as the parliaments of European countries and international parliamentary organizations in Europe to give an objective assessment of the anti-democratic law of Ukraine and protect the rights of ethnic minorities and the rights of children in that country," according to the proposed document.

Ukraine's new law on education stipulates that from September 1, 2018, children from national minorities will only be able to study in their native language at the primary school level, while secondary and post-secondary education will be in Ukrainian. Classes at all levels are supposed to be taught exclusively in Ukrainian by 2020. According to the law, minority languages can be learned as a separate subject. At the same time, the legislation stipulates the teaching of one or two disciplines in the languages of EU countries.

On Monday, Poroshenko signed the law on education, prompting heated discussions because of the provision on the language of teaching, which is designed to promote the Ukrainian language in the educational process. Along with Russia, the Hungarian and Romanian governments have criticized the law, saying that it violated the Ukrainian Constitution, Ukraine's international obligations and the rights of national minorities in Ukraine.