Belarus pulls out of CoE convention after banning education in minority languages  

November 29, Pozirk. The Belarusian government withdrew from the European Cultural Convention, says the Council of Ministers’ Directive No 822 published on the National Legal Internet Portal.

Adopted by the Council of Europe (CoE) in 1954, the Convention encourages the study of languages, history and culture of other signatories and provides participants with opportunities to facilitate such studies. Forty-six CoE members as well as Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Vatican ratified it. Belarus joined the Convention in 1993 and is the only one to terminate its participation.

Amendments to the law on languages that entered into force on July 25 in Belarus deprived the Lithuanian and Polish national minorities of the opportunity to receive education in their mother tongues.

Belarusian authorities aligned legislation with the new Education Code that requires all schools in Belarus to provide instruction only in the official languages starting from September 2022.

Last year, the Belarusian government closed down a school with instruction in Lithuanian in the village of Pialesa, Voranava district, Hrodna region, and prohibited a school in Rymdziuny, Astraviec district, Hrodna region, from providing instruction in Lithuanian. It also terminated Polish-language instruction programs in Hrodna and Vaŭkavysk.