ALFRED NOBEL UNIVERSITY
LAW DEPARTMENT
KARINA MISHCHENKO
CONSTITUTIONAL STATUS OF NATIONAL MINORITIES IN
UKRAINE
ABSTRACT OF DIPLOMA PAPER
Scientific supervisor: A. Kukharenko
Dnipropetrovsk
2015
Becoming in Ukraine of institutes of civil society, democratic, social, legal
state, foresees legal providing of activity and creation of necessary pre-conditions
of comprehensive development of national minorities as constituents of Ukrainian
cosmopolitan nation. It results into assertion of constitutional status of national
minorities, reliable guarantee of their rights and freedoms.
By the law of Ukraine "On national minorities in Ukraine" of 1992 citizens of
Ukraine, who are not Ukrainians by nationality, belong to national minorities, find
out sense of national self-awareness and community between themselves. There
were, also, adopted laws, which proclaimed additional rights for these groups of
citizens despite language, culture, traditions, etc.
However, despite wide recognition and proclamation of rights and freedoms
of national minorities, this issue is not studied enough.
The novelty of the research consists of necessity to create, firstly, theoretical
basis of system of constitutional rights for national minorities in Ukraine, as one of
the components of constitutional right; secondly, due to necessity to perfect current
legislation in accordance with Constitution and Law of Ukraine "On national
minorities in Ukraine"; thirdly, the necessity to create effective mechanisms to
provide basic rights and freedoms of national minorities in Ukraine.
The issue of freedom rights protection of national minorities was studied by
such scientists as: V.Kolisnik, N.A. Malovicka, V.Plisko, V.O. Nikityuk, M.P.
Orzikh, P.M. Rabinovich, V.F. Pogorilko, Y.S. Shemshuchenko.
The aim of the diploma work is to study constitutional status of national
minorities in Ukraine, to ground legal personality of national minorities, subjects in
the system of constitutional rights of Ukraine, and develop a mechanism of their
rights and freedoms protection.
The task of the research is:
– to analyze the system of rights and freedoms protection of national
minorities in Ukraine on the modern stage, development of science in relation
to the problems of national minorities;
– to ground constitutional status of national minorities and to define its basic
components;
– to describe international regulatory and legal guarantees of rights and
freedoms protection of national minorities;
– to carry out the analysis of self-organization forms of national minorities and
mechanism of cultural, political, social, economic rights and freedoms
enforcement;
– to develop propositions in relation to perfection of constitutional status of
national minorities in the legislation of Ukraine;
– to analyze mechanism of international standards implementation into the
Ukrainian legislation regarding national minorities;
The object of the research is constitutional aspects of national minorities in
Ukraine. The subject of the research is constitutional status of national minorities
as independent subjects of constitutional rights in Ukraine.
Methods used in the research. Systematic and structural approach was used to
define the system of national minority rights protection in Ukraine. Comparative
legal and forecasting methods enabled to carry out the analysis of the legal
adjusting of national minorities’ rights protection in Ukraine and to define basic
prospects of legislation development in Ukraine in the area of rights protection of
national minorities, taking into account experience of foreign countries. Multiple,
design, forecasting methods of analysis and synthesis gave possibility to develop
propositions in relation to perfection of legislation on national minorities in
Ukraine.
A system of agreements of the League of Nation was represented in the first
international acts in relation to national minorities. The European Union created a
system of national minorities’ rights protection at regional level, which is a
positive factor.
In general, the term national minorities means a political-legal term, which
means the group of persons, who constantly lives in the states, is less numeral from
the rest of this country, that makes less than half of its population, owns national or
ethnic, religious and linguistic, and also by other descriptions (by culture,
traditions) is different from such descriptions of other population and finds out
aspiring to maintain existence and originality of such group.
Having analyzed legal literature, it was found that there is not a unique
definition in relation to a category “minority” or “minorities” and even concerted
terminology which would be generally accepted if not in the whole world, at least
in the European region. Therefore, there are many inaccuracies in interpretation of
this concept, both from the side of legislators and researchers. After the
independence, Ukraine faced the problem of its own strategy regarding ethnopolitical development, which provides orientation on harmonious combination of
interests of all ethnic groups, living in Ukraine; forming of terms for their active
participation in political, socio-economic, spiritual and cultural life. Thus, our state
created legal framework within a few short years.
Having chosen the way of construction of democratic society, Ukraine, as the
European ethno-political country, actively studies and applies experience for
national minorities’ rights protection in the legislation, which the European states
accumulated during ages. It follows to examine experience of foreign countries in
two contexts:
 formation of theoretical, conceptual principles of development of multi-ethnic
society, which is the basis of legislation in relation to ethnic problems, which
accompany public processes in countries with multi-ethnic population;
 practice of decision making of those or other problems in particular historical
terms
The Law of Ukraine «On national minorities» from June, 25, 1992; Article
3 states, that citizens of Ukraine, who are not Ukrainians by nationality, belong
«to national minorities, find out sense of national self-awareness and
community among themselves».
We consider this decision to be incomplete, as it contains no single clear
standard in obedience to which it is possible to attribute the certain group of
citizens to the national minority.
This decision needs to be replaced on the group of citizens of Ukraine,
which are not Ukrainians by nationality, can be considered as «national
minority, but find out sense of national self-awareness and community among
themselves, speak the language which is not Ukrainian, have own religion,
culture and traditions which differ from culture and traditions of the Ukrainian
people.
Article 6 of the Law of Ukraine «On national minorities in Ukraine»
foresees national and cultural autonomy of national minorities’ rights, but there
are general provisions in this article. Therefore, it is necessary to pass a separate
Act of Ukraine «On national and cultural autonomy of national minorities in
Ukraine». It has to state the mechanism of the use and study of native language
in state educational establishments or through cultural centers; development of
national traditions, use of national symbols, holding of national holidays,
confession of faith, satisfaction of necessities in literature, art, mass media,
creation of national, cultural and educational establishments, etc.
To fulfill Article 7 of the Law of Ukraine «On principles of public
linguistic policy» from July 3, 2012 an Act of Ukraine «On local referendum»
has to be passed, where will be considered the mechanism of elections for the
use of certain regional language or the language of minority on certain
administrative-territorial entity. Consequently, national minorities’ rights
protection is an inalienable constituent of sustainable development of the
country.