MPs have approved the draft law on the state language

Parliamentarians considered the draft Law On Amendments to Article 10 of the DPR Constitution, which Head of the Donetsk People’s Republic Denis Pushilin brought forward, reports the press service of the People’s Council.

“At present, according to Article 10 of the DPR Constitution, the official languages in the DPR are Russian and Ukrainian. However, the usage of Ukrainian as a state language has not find its practical implementation for the period from May 14, 2014 till present. In addition, the usage of Russian is declared in the DPR by a series of regulatory legal acts. In particular, regulatory legal acts of state authorities are passed and promulgated in Russian.

In modern realities, when establishing the status of a state language, it is necessary to take into account the intensity of integration processes between the DPR and the Russian Federation. It is also noteworthy that Russian has the status of a world language and is one of the six official languages in the UN, UNESCO and other international organizations,” DPR Head’s envoy to the People’s Council Alexey Sukhinin informed.

He also noted that Article 13 of the DPR Constitution guarantees the equality of human and civil rights and freedoms regardless of language, nationality, origin and other circumstances. Any form of restriction of citizens’ rights on the grounds of national or linguistic affiliation is prohibited.

“From this it follows that the exclusion of Ukrainian from the state languages does not violate the rights of citizens of the Donetsk People’s Republic. In particular, the right to use Ukrainian as a language of private communication and in the process of acquiring pre-school, primary, general and basic general education. At the same time, the establishment of Russian as the state language will contribute to enhancing and enriching the spiritual culture of the state, strengthening the interstate ties,” Sukhinin summed up.

Given that the draft law is aimed at protecting and supporting Russian as the state language of the Donetsk People’s Republic, MPs passed it through two readings. Then, the DPR Law On Amending Article 10 of the DPR Constitution will be submitted for signature to the DPR Head and shall enter into force after being published on the website of the People’s Council.