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LG474 Language Rights

Prof. Peter L. Patrick

Dept. of Language & Linguistics

with Prof. John Packer

Human Rights Centre

University of Essex

 

Key Linguistic Rights Documents Online

 

Please also see THIS webpage

 

Sources:

 

1) UNESCO’s MOST Clearinghouse on Linguistic Rights

§    Phase I, 1994-2003 (note that this is now somewhat dated): www.unesco.org/most/ln2nat.htm

o   International Legal Instruments (declarations, conventions etc.)

o   National Constitutions w/provisions on language (cf “without” list!)

o   Non-governmental documents

Some of the principal ones are listed below. The MOST site generally only contains excerpts related to language rights, and/or links to the full document.

Please suggest others that you think should be here (contact me here)

 

UN documents in red; European (CoE) documents in blue; others in black. Documents ordered by date.

 

§    UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (1951)

o   http://www.unhcr.org/protect/PROTECTION/3b66c2aa10.pdf

 

§    UNESCO Convention Against Discrimination in Education (1960)

o   www.unesco.org/most/lnlaw3.htm for excerpts

 

§    UN Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees (1967)

o   http://www.unhcr.org/protect/PROTECTION/3b66c2aa10.pdf

 

§    UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (1992)

o   http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/d_minori.htm for full text

o   www.unesco.org/most/lnlaw7.htm for excerpts

 

§    European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML 1992) (CETS no. 148)

o   http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/Html/148.htm for full text

o   http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/QueVoulezVous.asp?NT=148&CM=1&DF=19/01/2011&CL=ENG - see “List of Declarations...” for individual states’ interpretations, restrictions and implementations – the devil is in the details...

o   www.unesco.org/most/lnlaw8.htm for summary & link

 

§    Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (1994) (CETS no. 157)

o   http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/Html/157.htm for full text

o   http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/QueVoulezVous.asp?NT=157&CL=ENG – see “List of Declarations...” for individual states’ definitions of NM, and recognition of specific NMs in their territories

o   www.unesco.org/most/lnlaw13.htm for excerpts

 

§    The Oslo Recommendations regarding the Linguistic Rights of National Minorities (1998), with Explanatory Note

o   www.unesco.org/most/ln2pol7.htm or http://www.osce.org/hcnm/67531

 

§    Recommendations to UNESCO for Action Plans on the Safeguarding of Endangered Languages (2003)

o   http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/doc/src/00117-EN.pdf

 

§    Recommendation concerning the Promotion and Use of Multilingualism and Universal Access to Cyberspace (2003)

o   http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=17717&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

 

§    UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007)

o   http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/drip.html

 

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Last updated on 06 February 2013