Respecting the person

Political tensions, demonstrations of citizens, open protest letters of various institutions – all this regards a controversial language bill "On principles of state language policy" passed in the second hearing by the Supreme Council of Ukraine on 3 July, with votes of 248 legislators out of 364. The law was first introduced last year by the ruling Party of the Regions, with intention to elevate languages spoken by ethnic minorities of more than 10% to the status of regional languages, thus giving them opportunity to have their mother tongue taught in schools, use it in official documents, with possibility to reduce the need for knowledge of Ukrainian language in certain professions.Pros and cons. One of the authors of the bill, parliament deputy Vadim Kolesnichenko, says that such legislation is necessary if Ukraine wants to become part of the European Union, insisting that it has been written "in full compliance with the European Charter for Minority Languages". The law doesn’t elevate the minority languages to an official state level, as it is something that can be changed only through a referendum among citizens. However, the protesters insists that providing even a regional status to the Russian language, spoken by about 20 million people, would seriously undermine the future of the Ukrainian language. Among other languages to be benefited there are for instance German, Polish, Hungarian or Crimean Tatar. The voice of Churches. The opposers turn to president Viktor Yanukovych, asking him vigorously not to ratify the bill, representatives of various Churches and religious associations among them. The All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (AUCCRO) wrote an open letter to the head of state, calling the adoption of the controversial law "a path to precipice, civil conflict and disintegration of the state". Religious leaders, including representatives of the Catholic Church in Ukraine, declare that "the deepening of the language division combined with political confrontation means further deepening of a social divide and shaking of foundations of the Ukrainian statehood". The letter continues with an appeal to Yanukovych "not to sign the explosive language bill 9073, veto it and return it to the Supreme Council for a real, full-value consideration and development of a balanced decision". In conclusion, the signatories invite to a serious dialogue regarding language issues on the national level. Respect for language as a respect for human personality. According to His Beatitude Sviatoslav Schevchuk of the UGCC, the question of language touches one of the deepest aspects of human soul and, therefore, one must not manipulate it. "When we speak about the language or respect for the language spoken by a particular person, we speak about the respect for the human personality. As we observe the events in our country, we can feel disrespect for what is important and sacred for each person. When the question of the language finds expression in various bills, there is a manipulation of what is the most sacred", comments His Beatitude Sviatoslav in an interview to the Ukrainian 24th Channel. The community of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv also made a public statement regarding adoption of the language bill, calling it a "cheap provocation" which artificially polarizes the Ukrainian society, and exhorting authorities in charge to look for a "national consensus". Status of language and number of its speakers. One of the languages to be elevated to the status of regional language is also the Crimean Tatar. Surprisingly, the leader of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Mustafa Jemilev, thinks that the law on the basis of the state language policy, adopted by the parliament, is "unbearable" for Crimean Tatars. "We refer ourselves as the indigenous people of Ukraine, and the situation with Crimean Tatar language mustn’t depend on number of its speakers", said Jemilev for the UNIAN agency. According to him, if Russian will receive the special status in the regions of Ukraine, the ethnic Ukrainians won’t have a stimulus to study their native language. "Neither Crimean Tartars will have this stimulus, because they speak Russian as good as the Russians", concludes Jemilev. However, there’s a question whether the controversial bill is really only a matter of language. The fact is that it has turned to a harsh political battle, intensified in regard to the forthcoming parliamentary election due to take place in October this year, with all protagonists trying to benefit from the situation, watched with concern also by the European structures.