26 April 2010, 13:00
The bill (Reg. No. 1059) authorizes use of the Russian language in judicial proceedings on appeal and by consent of the parties.
The Committee members stated that the bill had been drafted to regulate the use of the Ukrainian and Russian languages in the Ukrainian courts, and provide for the competitiveness of the process and completeness of the case investigation.
It was stressed that the Constitution and the laws of Ukraine, as well as the Convention of Human Rights and Liberties, guarantee realization of a generally recognized right to the effective judicial protection.
The Committee members made it a point that the bill "does not grant the Russian language the status of a state language either explicitly or implicitly, since it merely determines the limits and procedure of its use in the judicial institutions at the territory of Ukraine."
The subjects of legislative initiative believe that adoption of the bill "will harmonize the laws of Ukraine with the Constitution of Ukraine and the Law "On Languages in the Ukrainian SSR", as well as alleviate social tension in the field of language policy."