scholarly journals Minority Language Rights: What Matters? A Comparison of Belgium and Canada

1969 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamara Levy
Keyword(s):  
Intergovernmental Relations ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Language Rights ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Minority Language Rights ◽  
What Matters

In federal societies, intergovernmental relations are necessarily a part of political life. But, as a student of intergovernmental relations (IGR), I want to understand, how much do intergovernmental relations really matter to particular policy outcomes? In order to assess this question, I have undertaken a study of minority language rights policies in two federal societies, Belgium and Canada (the Countries). In these circumstances, the above question is refined and can instead be stated as follows: what factors influence the content of minority language policies in the Countries?

Language Rights and Language Repression

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen May
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Language Rights ◽  
Political Democracy ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Minority Language Rights ◽  
The World

Many historical and contemporary conflicts in the world today, while often ostensibly framed in ethnic terms, actually involve language—and by extension, language policy—as a key catalyst or concern. This chapter charts how the widespread practice of enforcing linguistic homogeneity within modern nations-states, based on the view that this will minimize ethnic and linguistic conflict, actually exacerbates it, forcing linguistic minorities increasingly into avenues and means of dissent. More broadly, it explores how this preoccupation with linguistic homogeneity at the level of the nation-state is an unhelpful artifact of a combination of the negative ascription of ethnicity, the politics of nationalism, and the promotion of an individualist conception of citizenship and human rights. It concludes by arguing that language policies that actively accommodate minority language rights are more, rather than less, likely to ensure political stability—promoting not just political democracy but ethnocultural and ethnolinguistic democracy as well.

Equal Recognition and Language Rights

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Patten
Keyword(s):  
Minority Language ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Language Rights ◽  
Language Preservation ◽  
Minority Language Rights ◽  
Equal Recognition

This chapter explores the justification of minority language rights. It argues that equal recognition ought to play a key role in thinking about the justification of minority language rights, and that disputes about language rights ought to be examined from the perspective of what was called “full liberal proceduralism.” From this perspective, the mere fact that some minority language is doing poorly does not by itself ground a legitimate complaint of injustice by speakers of that language. But minority speakers do have a complaint if their language fares poorly in a context in which it is disfavored by public institutions. There is no right to language preservation, but there is a strong, pro tanto claim for equal recognition, a claim that can be considered a right in the absence of defeating countervailing considerations.

Territoriality and Minority Language Rights

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 429-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
Balázs Vizi
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Political Control ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Language Rights ◽  
Council Of Europe ◽  
Technical Approach ◽  
National Minorities ◽  
Minority Language Rights

Territorial principle emerges not only in domestic legislations on language rights, but also in international documents. The article aims at offering an overview of the interpretations of territoriality in international documents relevant for minority language rights, with a special focus on the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. While states often use territorial requirements as a tool of political control over minority language use, the interpretation of their obligations under the two Council of Europe treaties would require a more practical and technical approach to territorial limitations.

Minority Language Rights in International Law

2001 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Dunbar
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Language Rights ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Minority Language Rights ◽  
Regional Or Minority Languages

The provision of legislative or other legal protection for linguistic minorities is widespread in domestic legal systems.1 In international law, and in international human rights law in particular, the question of minority language rights has until recently received much less attention. The entry into force on 1 March 1998 of the Council of Europe's European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (the “Minority Languages Charter”), the first international instrument directed solely at the question of language, suggests that the situation may be changing.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document