The National Organization of the Scouts of Ukraine (, Natsionalna orhanizatsiya skautiv Ukrayiny, NOSU) is an all-Ukrainian non-profit youth public organization that enables young people to play a constructive role in society through non-formal education. NOSU is a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) and participates in international Scouting events and activities. It was established in 2007 by the representatives of three largest Scout organizations in Ukraine, the all-Ukrainian youth organization "SPOK", Plast and the All-Ukrainian organization Sich (Січ) meaning Cossack fortress and some local groups. Since then it has grown to become one of the largest youth organizations in the country. Membership stood at 4,650 Scouts in 2011.
Establishment of NOSU
The first mention of Scouts in Ukraine dates back to 1908. Scout groups worked actively in the country, particularly in Kyiv, until the Soviet Union was established in 1922. Afterwards the Scout Movement was banned throughout Ukraine and replaced by the Young Pioneers, an organization that was fully politicized and dependent on the communist government.
The revival of Scouting in Ukraine follow the Soviet Union's collapse in the early 1990s. WOSM helped revive Scouting and encouraged various NSOs worldwide to join this initiative. For example, the Scouts of France helped develop Scouting in the eastern regions of Ukraine. In the central part of Ukraine, Scouting was re-established by SPOK (abbreviation: independence, decency, optimism, intelligence), and in the western regions, the organisation Plast started its active development.
In 2004, the Ukrainian Scout Youth Public Organization Spilka Pionerskykh Orhanizatzii Kyïva (literally Kyiv Pioneer Movement Organization or SPOK, with a membership of 3,750 in 18 of 26 Ukrainian oblasts) applied for WOSM membership. In January, 2005, this motion was recommended by the World Scout Bureau. Since more than 5% of the National Scouting Organizations voted against the application, Germany and the Boy Scouts of America among the opposing votes, SPOK was not admitted to WOSM and withdrew the application. As a result of this, a special mission of the World Scout Committee was sent to Ukraine. Ukrainian Scouting endeavoured to set up a new Scouting body unifying Plast and SPOK in order to satisfy WOSM requirements, to be worked out by 2008, as all parties were motivated to join the international community.
Following the recommendations of Resolution 2/05 adopted by the 37th World Scout Conference in Tunisia, the constitutive congress of the National Organization of the Scouts of Ukraine (NOSU) was held on 27 March 2007. The congress, which gathered Scout representatives from most regions of Ukraine, approved the Constitution of NOSU and elected its governing bodies. This event was made possible thanks to efforts of three Scout associations (Plast, SPOK and Sich) to work towards unification of Scouting in Ukraine in a new single National Scout Organization so as to be able to join WOSM.
The Constitution of NOSU was officially registered by the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine in November 2007, thus confirming the creation of a single National Scout Organization in Ukraine. An amended version of this Constitution was received on 4 February 2008 and formally approved by the Constitutions Committee and the World Scout Committee.
In 2008, NOSU applied for membership through the World Scout Bureau into the World Organization of the Scout Movement. In accordance with the requirements of the Constitution of WOSM, the World Scout Committee considered this application at its meeting from 29 February to 2 March 2008, and recommended that it be accepted. Under the terms of Article VI.2 of the WOSM Constitution, "if within three months the recommendation is unopposed or opposed by less than five percent of the Member Organizations", NOSU was declared a Member, as the National Scout Organization of Ukraine, of the World Organization of the Scout Movement as from 1 July 2008.
WOSM Acting Secretary General Luc Panissod visited NOSU in mid-March 2008. He had the opportunity to meet and talk with various groups of young people (candidates to join, patrol leaders, summer camp young leaders) and adult leaders responsible of local Scout groups. He also met with the Deputy Minister of Family, Youth and Sports, one of the founding members of one of the Scout associations, who confirmed full support of the authorities to NOSU. He also had several working sessions with leaders of NOSU to assess the level of development of the organization.