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general_information:international_legislation

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International agreements protecting minority languages

About convenant protecting minority languages, and how they work

Many global and transnational agreements, the form of convenants, exist, aiming to protect minority languages. Usually, these convenants propose a number of measures to improve the situation of minority languages. If a nation decides to ratify such a convenant, it commits itself to carrying out the measures proposed.

To determine whether a nation in fact carries out these measures, the nation has to report about it to a committee every few years. This report is then judged by a committee. If the committee deems the measures taken insufficient, the nation is informed of this. Though it is not considered polite to ignore the committee's judgement, a nation is free to do so.

Though most convenants cannot be enforced, they do have power: because, by ratifying the convenant, a nation makes promises, and may be reminded about keeping or breaking those.

Examples of conventions:

This list of conventions is not exhaustive, but aims to mentions some influential ones.

Global covenants:

United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007)

  • All members of the United Nations are expected to comply with its policies.
  • Offers protection for: “indigenous peoples”.
  • View the Declaration here.

UNESCO's Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003)

ILO Convention Concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries (1989)

European Charter for Regional and Minority languages (1992)

  • Set up by the Council of Europe
  • State parties who have ratified the Charter are expected to uphold its policies.
  • Offers protection for “regional or minority languages” defined as languages traditionally used within a given territory of a state by nationals of that state who form a group numerically smaller than the rest of the state’s population; they are different from the official language(s) of that state, and they include neither dialects of the official language(s) of the state nor the languages of migrants.
  • View the text of the Charter here.

How the Charter works

The Charter operates similar to other convenants: it proposes measures that nations, which ratify the Charter, should take. In the Charter's case, these measures are divided into two separate sets called “Part II” and “Part III”:

  • Part II represents a set of general provisions, which apply to all minority languages within a member state's territory;
  • Part III represents a set of additional provisions, which apply to a subselection of minority languages, that receive additional protection.

Look here for an overview of which language is protected by which Part of the Charter.

To determine whether member states uphold the policies of the Charter, a delegate from the Council of Europe visits the member states every few years and reports about their compliance.

general_information/international_legislation.1472736555.txt.gz · Last modified: 2016/09/01 15:29 by johanneke

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