Hungarian parliament adopts cross-party decree condemning Ukrainian education law

Lawmakers on Tuesday unanimously passed a five-party decree condemning “the unlawful Ukrainian education law” and urging measures to be taken against it. 

The motion was initiated in response to Ukraine’s new education law that bans post-primary-level education in minority languages.

The decree states that the law seriously restricts the rights of Ukraine’s Hungarian community to education and use of their mother tongue.

Further, the new law not only violates European norms but also is counter to a number of fundamental international treaties that Ukraine voluntarily signed up to on protecting a minority’s ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious identity, it added.

The decree urges the leaders of Ukraine to respect “common European values of democracy and the rule of law” and to stop the new law from taking effect.

It also calls on the Hungarian government to take every possible measure to prevent the new law’s enforcement.

As we wrote, under the Ukrainian law, secondary school and higher education courses will only be available in Ukrainian, while education in minority languages is restricted to kindergartens and primary schools.

As we wrote today, “Hungary is turning to the United Nations because of the amendment of the Ukrainian Educating Act, because Ukraine’s decision also violated the UN’s minority regulations”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a statement.

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI