On February 24th, with the participation of Mayor Oleksandr Kodola and Deputy Mayor Sergiy Smaha, the heads of public organizations of Nizhyn national communities met with the People's Deputy of Ukraine of the VIII convocation, advisor to the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Human Rights, Deoccupation and Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories of Donetsk, Luhansk oblasts and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the city of Sevastopol, national minorities and interethnic relations, Iryna Suslova, and the coordinator of the Council of Europe project «Protecting national minorities, including Roma, and minority languages in Ukraine» Zemfira Kondur.

The meeting was attended by representatives of public organizations: the head of the cultural and educational union of Polish citizens «ASTER» Veronika Mandryko and her deputy Maria Nakonechna, the head of the Nizhyn City Society of Greeks named after the Zosimov Brothers Larysa Zaiko, the head of the Nizhyn city Jewish community Svitlana Pudalova, member of Jewish community Valeriy Finkelshtern, Deputy Chairman of the Nizhyn City Public Organization of Assyrians «ATRA» William Arvahi, Chairman of the Non-governmental organization (NGO) «Association of Roma «ZOR» Marina Bublyk.

Purpose of the meeting: Present the idea of the initiative group for national communities. Get acquainted with the activities of public organizations of national communities of the city. Agree on the idea of creating an initiative group with the participants of the meeting.

Mayor Oleksandr Kodola noted that national minorities in the city of Nizhyn work actively and effectively. «We are always ready to support national communities and set an example for the whole country. Therefore, today it is important to introduce an effective mechanism of interaction between local governments, representatives of NGO and local communities of national minorities», - said Alexander Mikhailovich.

Iryna Suslova indicated that the Committee on Human Rights, National Minorities and International Relations has done a tremendous job to make the voices of national minorities heard, to take into account their needs and wishes for cultural development. The Committee is currently working on a draft law on national minorities in the working group.

Zemfira Kondur acquainted the audience with the direction of the project of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine, which deals with the protection of national minorities and minority languages in Ukraine and aims to strengthen the capacity and realize the capabilities of various national institutions. In order to establish a dialogue with representatives of national minorities, work has begun in cities and villages to strengthen the dialogue between representatives of national communities and local authorities through the establishment of initiative groups. According to the principle of multicultural cities and openness of local authorities to cooperation, the Council of Europe has selected 5 cities, including Nizhyn. 

Representatives of Nizhyn NGOs actively participated in the dialogue, spoke about their activities, their own vision of cooperation and willingness to lobby and represent the interests of national minorities in the city.

The participants of the meeting focused not only on cultural and educational work, but also on organizing and conducting trainings and exercises, entrepreneurship development, opportunities to create a center of national cultures in the city, continuing work on preserving historical memory, cultural heritage, etc.

The result of the constructive communication was the agreement of the heads of public organizations uniting the national minorities of Nizhyn to establish an initiative group of national communities in the city to strengthen the mechanism of participation of national communities at the local level.  

The meeting was held within the framework of the project «Protection of National Minorities, including Roma, and Minority Languages in Ukraine» which is based on specific recommendations of the two monitoring bodies of the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The project is being implemented within the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine for 2018-2022.