Legislation

Constitution

(Adopted on December 12, 1993)

(Document Status on December 12, 1993)

Article 19

2. The state shall guarantee the equality of rights and liberties regardless of sex, race, nationality, language, origin, property or employment status, residence, attitude to religion, convictions, membership of public associations or any other circumstance. Any restrictions of the rights of citizens on social, racial, national, linguistic, or religious grounds shall be prohibited.

Article 26

2. Everyone shall have the right to use his native language and to freely choose the language of communication, education, training and creative work.

Article 29

2. Propaganda or inciting social, racial, national, or religious hatred and strife is impermissible. The propaganda of social, racial, national, religious, or linguistic supremacy is forbidden.

Article 68

1. The state language of the Russian Federation throughout its territory shall be the Russian language.

2. The republics shall have the right to institute their own state languages. They shall be used alongside the state language of the Russian Federation in bodies of state power, bodies of local self-government and state institutions of the republics.

3. The Russian Federation shall guarantee all its peoples the right to preserve their native language and to create the conditions for its study and development.

Note: The complete text of the Constitution and further information on the constitutional background of Russia are provided by the International Constitutional Law Project at the University of Wuerzburg.

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