CONSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL REGIME OF LANGUAGES OF NATIONAL MINORITIES IN UKRAINE: CURRENT STATE AND PROSPECTS

Abstract

The article carries out a systematic analysis of the provisions of the language legislation of Ukraine and draft laws regarding the determination of the constitutional and legal regime of the languages of national minorities. It has been established that such a regime is generally consistent with international standards for ensuring human rights, but at the same time it does not always take into account the peculiarities of the national legal order. According to the results of the research, the author singled out general and special features of the constitutional and legal regime of the languages of national minorities. The need for installation is substantiated a special legal regime for some languages of national minorities, which accordingly has its own characteristics. At the same time, attention is drawn to the fact that when carrying out legal regulation of the language sphere, the legislator must be guided first of all by the protection of the national interest and to prevent violation of the principle of equality rights of national minorities. It was established that Ukraine still lacks a specific law that would regulate the use of languages in the state. In connection with this, the author of the article made suggestions regarding the content of the basic legislative act, which, in particular, can determine the principles of the state language policy of Ukraine, develop constitutional provisions regarding the monopoly use of the state language, outline the limits of national minorities' implementation of their language rights, etc. At the same time, a specific law that would concern the legal regulation of the functioning of the languages of national minorities, in the opinion of the author, should define the current state language policy, contain the appropriate conceptual and categorical apparatus (language of national minorities or indigenous peoples, regional language, national minority, etc.), clarify the content of the principles of the use and protection of the languages of national minorities, as well as the procedure for the use of languages in various spheres of public life. Along with that, the provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine must contain only the general principles of the legal regime of the languages of national minorities (without unjustified preferences for individual languages of national minorities), generally establish guarantees for their use and protection, provide for legislative regulation of the procedure for the use of languages in the state. It was concluded that there are currently no grounds for the creation of new specialized human rights mechanisms that would take care of the rights of national minorities, since the human rights protection system in Ukraine is sufficiently developed and accessible.