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UN / UKRAINE STATE LANGUAGE
STORY: UN / UKRAINE STATE LANGUAGE
TRT: 2:32
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /RUSSIAN /NATS
DATELINE: 16 JULY 2019, NEW YORK CITY
FILE
1. Exterior shot, UN Headquarters
16 JULY 2019, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Zoom in, president opens a meeting
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, United Nations:
“While many of the controversial points were addressed in its final version, the law still raises concerns. OHCHR recommends that the Ukrainian Government should elaborate, as established by the language law, a law on the realization of the rights of national minorities of Ukraine, to ensure
a fair correlation between the protection of the rights of minorities and the preservation of the State language as a tool for integration within society. This should be done without undue delay.”
5. Cutaway, delegates
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Lamberto Zannier, High Commissioner on National Minorities, OSCE:
“The law on State language, as it stands, does not ensure sufficient legal clarity or guarantees for the protection of the linguistic rights of persons belonging to national minorities. Therefore, pending adoption of this prospective law on the rights of national minorities, the protection of their linguistic rights remains unclear.”
7. Wide shot, Council in meeting
8. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vassily Nebenzia, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN:
“Let us recall that what today what enters into force are the main provisions of this document, providing for a harsh, forced Ukrainization of all spheres of public life and gradually levies fines for non-use of Ukrainian language. Russian-speaking citizens of the country will be stripped of the opportunity to be educated in their native language including in schools and universities.”
9. Cutaway, delegates
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Volodymyr Yelchenko, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN:
“A country that for centuries suppressed the Ukrainian language and forcefully replaced it with the Russian in all spheres of public life is not in a position to tell us now what language we should speak and write.”
11. Cutaway, delegates
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, United Nations:
“The human cost of the conflict is still growing. Ordinary civilians continue to be targeted and suffer from indiscriminate shelling on a daily basis, as well as from the threat of landmines. This year alone, as of 30 June, OHCHR recorded 91 conflict-related civilian casualties.”
13. Wide shot, Council in meeting
At the request of Russia, the UN Security Council met today to discuss a new law entering in force in Ukraine, instating the Ukrainian language as the sole official language in the country, requiring that it be used in the public sector.
Briefing the Security Council, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo said “while many of the controversial points were addressed in its final version, the law still raises concerns.”
DioCarlo also said that the UN human rights office, OHCHR, recommended that the Ukrainian Government “should elaborate, as established by the language law, a law on the realization of the rights of national minorities of Ukraine, to ensure a fair correlation between the protection of the rights of minorities and the preservation of the State language as a tool for integration within society.”
“This should be done without undue delay,” said DiCarlo.
Also briefing the Council members, Lamberto Zannier, High Commissioner on National Minorities at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said that while Ukraine has every right to strengthen the role of state language to enhance the sense of belonging, “the law on State Language, as it stands, does not ensure sufficient legal clarity or guarantees for the protection of the linguistic rights of persons belonging to national minorities. Therefore, pending adoption of this prospective law on the rights of national minorities, the protection of their linguistic rights remains unclear.”
Russian ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said that the new law will provide “for a harsh, forced Ukrainization of all spheres of public life and gradually levies fines for non-use of Ukrainian language. Russian-speaking citizens of the country will be stripped of the opportunity to be educated in their native language including in schools and universities.”
In response, the Ukranian ambassador Volodymyr Yelchenko said “a country that for centuries suppressed the Ukrainian language and forcefully replaced it with the Russian in all spheres of public life is not in a position to tell us now what language we should speak and write.”
On other issues, the Under-Secretary-General DiCarlo, reported that fighting in Donbas region is still ongoing, damaging and disrupting civilian infrastructure while the situation at the contact line remains unpredictable and volatile.
DiCarlo said “The human cost of the conflict is still growing. Ordinary civilians continue to be targeted and suffer from indiscriminate shelling on a daily basis, as well as from the threat of landmines.”
“This year alone, as of 30 June,” said DiCarlo, “OHCHR recorded 91 conflict-related civilian casualties.”
Of those, 13 were killed and 78 injured.
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