2025-12-07
On December 3, 2025, the Ukrainian Parliament approved a bill clarifying the official translation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the list of languages protected by this document in Ukraine.
The updated text of the Law of Ukraine 'On the Ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages' extended the Charter's coverage to Yiddish and Hebrew, the endangered languages of the North Azovian Greeks (Urum and Roumean), the languages of the indigenous peoples of Crimea, and the Romani language.
It should be recalled that on February 17, the UAJS sent a statement to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine with a request to extend the protection of the Charter not only to Hebrew and Modern Greek, as provided for in the draft law, but also to Yiddish as part of Ukrainian cultural heritage, a language that was spoken by the majority of Ukrainian Jews in the past and is now critically endangered, the Karaim and Krymchak languages of the indigenous peoples of Crimea, and the Urum and Roumean languages of North Azovian Greeks (these languages are particularly endangered since their historical area of distribution is occupied by Russia).
A similar appeal to lawmakers was also made by the NGO North Azovian Greeks.
We express our gratitude to Members of Parliament for their willingness to listen to the opinions of scholars, as well as to the representatives of minorities whose languages need state protection.
