UN Slurs Over Violation Of Russian-Speaking People Rights In Baltics, Ukraine - Lavrov

UN Slurs Over Violation of Russian-Speaking People Rights in Baltics, Ukraine - Lavrov

Russia regrets that the United Nations Human Rights Council glosses over violations of the rights of Russian-speaking population in Baltic countries and Ukraine, foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th February, 2021) Russia regrets that the United Nations Human Rights Council glosses over violations of the rights of Russian-speaking population in Baltic countries and Ukraine, foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday.

"Concerns are growing deeper over discrimination of Russian-speaking population in the Baltics and Ukraine, in particular with regard to execution of linguistic and educational rights. We regret that the UN Human Rights Council and its special procedures draw a veil over flagrant violations of rights of millions of people," Lavrov said at the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council.

Protection of official languages should never go along with repressions against national minorities, the Russian foreign minister stressed. Lavrov also recalled that the Ukrainian government started pushing national minorities' languages out from the social and educational spheres back in September in line with new laws on official language and general secondary education.

"The Russian language, which remains native to 30-50 percent of the population of the country [Ukraine] according to different estimates, was subject to additional discrimination, as the Ukrainian authorities envisioned a separate preferential regime for languages of the EU countries," Lavrov continued.