Reflecting on the Official Languages Act at 50: Was the Advent of the Charter so Great After All?

2021 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 78-98
Author(s):  
Andrew McDougall
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Language ◽  
Language Rights ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Official Languages ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Inuit Language

This piece examines more closely the relationship between the OLA and the Charter, arguing that the relationship between the two rights instruments is much more fraught than commonly believed. The advent of the Charter and its entrenchment of language rights have always been seen as unquestionably positive for the OLA. However, it may be time to re-evaluate that belief. Using the concept of “constitutional displacement,” the article suggests that the Charter also had the effect of overshadowing the OLA, which limits its potential for reform. A similar fate befell other statutes, such as the Canadian Bill of Rights. By way of contrast, the OLA is compared to the Inuit Language Protection Act (ILPA) in Nunavut to suggest that the latter enjoys a higher profile in the territory and has more potential for expansion precisely because of the lack of clearly defined, entrenched Indigenous language rights in the constitution.

scholarly journals The Construction of Indigenous Language Rights in Peru: A Language Regime Approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-180
Author(s):  
Stéphanie Rousseau ◽  
Eduardo Dargent
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Indigenous Language ◽  
Language Rights ◽  
State Transformation ◽  
Ethnic Parties ◽  
Indigenous Movement ◽  
Official Languages ◽  
The Creation

From the 1990s onwards, many Latin American states have adopted constitutional reforms that recognise indigenous peoples’ rights. In this article, we address a much less studied aspect, the emergence of new language rights. Based on field research and process tracing, we study the case of Peru where indigenous language rights were created in the absence of ethnic parties and with a relatively weak indigenous movement. We argue that the country moved slowly away from a monolingual language regime towards the recognition of indigenous languages as official languages and the creation of language rights. We identify key moments of state transformation in the 1970s, the 1990s, and the 2000s as linked to successive building blocks in the creation of a multi-lingual language regime. In particular, the decentralisation reforms of the 2000s created new opportunities for subnational actors to further develop these rights in different regions of the country. We exemplify these dynamics by looking into the adoption of language rights in the regions of Cuzco and Ayacucho.

Bringing rights home: time to start a family?

Legal Studies ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Sedley
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Mutual Respect ◽  
Human Rights Act ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Proposals for a new constitutional settlement have highlighted issues, many of them factitious, about the Human Rights Act. This paper suggests that the relationship of rights to duties is poorly understood, and that the majority of recognised rights already carry corresponding duties, but that to try to make the enjoyment of rights conditional on the fulfilment of duties is neither principled nor practicable. It is suggested that, using mutual respect as a sounder basis, a larger Bill of Rights can be contemplated. But good constitutions cannot be willed into being: pending the arrival of a constitutional moment, reform is likely to be a process of interest-group wrangling in which the most that can be looked for are some modest but necessary reforms.

Rethinking the Architecture of Shushtar-Nou: A Forgotten Episode of Architectural Regionalism in 1970s Iran

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-167
Author(s):  
Mohamad Sedighi
Keyword(s):  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Community Model ◽  
Novel Synthesis ◽  
Iranian Government ◽  
Growth And Change ◽  
New Community ◽  
Oil Revenues ◽  
Southwest Iran ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Instrumental Role

Abstract Oil revenues in the late 1960s enabled the Iranian government to fund several international architecture congresses. Throughout the 1970s, a group of young Iranian architects organized a series of architectural events, among them the second Iran International Congress of Architects (IICA), held in Persepolis-Shiraz in 1974. This Congress resulted in the 'Habitat Bill of Rights', a CIAM-like charter submitted by the Iranian government to the first UN-conference on 'Human Settlements' in 1976. This article reveals the 1974 IICA's instrumental role in shaping the discourse on architectural regionalism in the design for dwelling and human habitats, approaches to the relationship between tradition and modernity, and importantly how the architecture of Kamran Diba aimed to bridge the gap between local culture and internationalism, by forming a novel synthesis of these two approaches. To illustrate the latter, this article examines the design and development of Shushtar-Nou, a new community model designed by Diba in southwest Iran. Implicit within its design is Diba's view on the Congress debates and his goal in developing a malleable environment that accommodated growth and change over time, while preserving its core attributes.

12. Limiting Powers

2021 ◽  
pp. 451-496
Author(s):  
Robert Schütze
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
National Courts ◽  
Charter Of Fundamental Rights ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Eu Fundamental Rights

This chapter investigates each of the European Union’s three bills of rights and the constitutional principles that govern them. It starts with the discovery of an ‘unwritten’ bill of rights in the form of general principles of European law. The chapter then moves to an analysis of the Union’s ‘written’ bill of rights: the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which was adopted to codify already existing human rights in the Union legal order. It also considers the formal relationship between the European Union and the European Convention on Human Rights. Finally, the chapter explores the relationship between EU fundamental rights and the Member States. Despite being primarily addressed to the Union, EU fundamental rights can, in some situations, also bind the Member States (and even their nationals). National courts may thus sometimes be obliged to review the legality of national law in the light of EU fundamental rights.

Student outcomes in one-way, two-way, and indigenous language immersion education

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Lindholm-Leary ◽  
Fred Genesee
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Student Outcomes ◽  
Language Immersion ◽  
Indigenous Language ◽  
Language Competence ◽  
Content Areas ◽  
Student Background ◽  
Immersion Education ◽  
Language Immersion Education ◽  
The Relationship

This article examines international research on student outcomes in one-way, two-way, and indigenous language immersion education. We review research on first and second language competence and academic achievement in content areas (e.g., math) among both majority and minority language students. We also discuss the relationship between bilingualism and student outcomes and whether more exposure to the first or second language is associated with better outcomes. In addition, we highlight student background, methodological, and assessment issues and concerns, and suggest additional avenues of research on student outcomes

Is Cameroon Pidgin flourishing or dying?

English Today ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 30-34
Author(s):  
Samuel Atechi
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Small Population ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Main Medium ◽  
Official Languages ◽  
Ambivalent Attitude ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Methodological Difficulties

Cameroon Pidgin English (abbreviated to CamP) is one of the languages of wider communication in Cameroon, a country second only to Papua New Guinea in terms of its multiplicity of languages for a relatively small population. CamP is used alongside other languages like English and French (official languages), Fulfulde, Arab Choa, Ewondo and Duala (lingua francas), and over 250 indigenous languages. What is, however, peculiar about CamP is that it is not restricted to a particular class of people or to people from a particular region. A language which arose as a result of the desperate need for a link language between people who spoke mutually unintelligible languages has now established itself as a major force to reckon with in the linguistic landscape of the country. One of the main preoccupations among researchers on CamP has been its relationship with Cameroon English (CamE), which has higher status. While CamE is an official language in the country's constitution, CamP enjoys covert prestige bestowed on it by Cameroonians as a language of wider communication, social interaction, intimacy, etc. However, Cameroonians have been given to understand that the coexistence of CamP and CamE is responsible for the falling standard of English in the country, as a result of which CamP should be eradicated at all costs. This attitude has led to the stigmatisation and intimidation of CamP speakers as educational authorities all over the country attempt to ban the language, and refer to it in such pejorative terms as bad English, poor English, bush English, join join English etc. Such hostility has tended to drive the language underground so that speakers rarely express their liking for the language overtly. They are suspicious of language authorities and thus have developed an ambivalent attitude towards anything that has to do with CamP. Thus if those speakers who use CamP daily as the main medium of communication were to be asked what they think about its status, functions and prospects, the results would be largely negative (Schröder, 2003), not because they do not like the language but simply because they have been intimidated and stigmatised. This ambivalence has caused serious methodological difficulties for researchers, which have marred most results of studies on the functions, status and prospects of CamP. The inability to adopt an appropriate methodology to research the topic has given rise to conflicting findings and statements on the relationship between CamP and CamE, some of which are sometimes truly baffling (see Ngefac & Sala, 2006; Ayafor, 2005; Kouega, 2001; Chia, 2009). Researchers insensitive to the situation carry out research on CamP and obtain results that paint a completely distorted picture of the situation on the ground. In this light, certain basic questions about this relationship remain to be settled: What is actually the relationship between CamP and CamE? Is CamP really facing death? Is CamP losing ground to CamE? Is CamP soon going to lose its identity and idiosyncrasies to CamE or is CamP going to supplant CamE? This paper will consider how various researchers have grappled with these questions. By analysing their statements, it will attempt to explain the controversies that have characterised research on the relationship between CamP and CamE thus far.

The Creation of a “True Antient and Indubitable” Right: The English Bill of Rights and the Right to Be Armed

1993 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 226-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joyce Lee Malcolm
Keyword(s):  
New Right ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
The People ◽  
Conservative Revolution ◽  
Single Flower ◽  
The Creation ◽  
English Law ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship

The seventh of the thirteen “ancient and indubitable” rights proclaimed in the English Declaration of Rights was neither ancient nor indubitable. It declared “that the Subjects which are Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their conditions, and as allowed by Law.” The right of ordinary subjects to possess weapons is perhaps the most extraordinary and least understood of English liberties. It lies at the heart of the relationship between the individual and his fellows and between the individual and his government. Few governments have ever been prepared to make such a guarantee, and, until 1689, no English parliamentary body was either. Its elevation that year to the company of ancient and indubitable rights unmasked the deep-seated distrust between the governing classes and the crown. Together with the equally novel article that gave Parliament greater control over standing armies, this right was meant to place the sword in the hands of Protestant Englishmen and the power over it in the hands of Parliament.The actual novelty of this right had eluded historians for a variety of reasons. First, its framers were taken at their word when they described it as ancient and indubitable. Indeed, Whig historians preferred to believe there had been a conservative revolution. Thomas Macaulay rejoiced that “not a single flower of the crown was touched. Not a single new right was given to the people. The whole English law, substantive and adjective, was, in the judgment of all the greatest lawyers … almost exactly the same after the Revolution as before it.

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