Belarusian language society calls for legislation changes

According to European Radio, Belarusian Language Society has received a reply from the Ministry of Education. The organization is demanding to introduce changes to the language legislation.

BLS Head Aleh Trusau says that they have addressed the president’s administration and the House of Representatives. The amendments were meant to provide for an actual bilinguism, not a declarative one. After 1998 Belarusian linguistic legislation allows state servants to ignore Belarusian as a state language.

According to Trusau, the Parliament says it is not going to consider BLS’s claims. The ministry of Education said they would introduce changes, but named no details.

Now, Belarusian Language Society is planning to address all the state bodies having a right of legislative initiative.