Language rights

Language Rights and Legal Status:

Emergence of language rights:
Linguistic rights became more and more prominent throughout the course of history as language
came to be increasingly seen as a part of nationhood. Although policies and legislation involving
language have been in effect in early European history, these were often cases where a language
was being imposed upon people while other languages or dialects were neglected. Most of the
initial literature on linguistic rights came from countries where linguistic and/or national
divisions grounded in linguistic diversity have resulted in linguistic rights playing a vital role in
maintaining stability. However, it was not until the 1900s that linguistic rights gained official
status in politics and international accords.

Definitions:
What are language rights?
Language rights are concerned with rules that public or private institutions adopt with respect to
language use in a variety of different domains, in which language policy choices get made;
internal use (public services, court and legislations education) private language use
( immigration, naturalization, enlargement and official declarations).

Linguistics rights? Linguistic human rights can be described as a series of obligations on

state authorities to either use certain languages in a number of contexts, not interfere with the
linguistic choices and expressions of private parties, and may extend to an obligation to
recognize or support the use of languages of minorities or indigenous peoples. Kimilicka,
language rights(16-25)
Language rights a part of human rights? Language rights and linguistic human rights are human
rights which have an incidence on language preferences of or use by state authorities, individuals
and other entities. Human rights involving language area combination of legal requirements
based on human rights treaties and guidelines to state authorities on how to address languages or
minority issues, and potential impacts associated with linguistic diversity within a state.
Language rights are to be found in various human rights and freedoms provisions, such as the
prohibition of discrimination, freedom of expression, the right to private life, the right to
education, and the right of linguistic minorities to use their own language with others in their
group.

Minority languages ?
Minority languages are occasionally marginalized within nations for a number of reasons. These
include the small number of speakers, the decline in the number of speakers, and their occasional
consideration as uncultured, primitive, or simple dialects when compared to the dominant
language. Support for minority languages is sometimes viewed as supporting separatism, for
example the ongoing revival of the Celtic languages (Irish, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Manx,
Cornish and Breton). Immigrant minority languages are often also seen as a threat and as
indicative of the non-integration of these communities. Both of these perceived threats are based
on the notion of the exclusion of the majority language speakers. Often this is added to by
political systems by not providing support (such as education and policing) in these languages.

FUNCTIONALITY:
Language rights function in some specific ways in relation to the status of the individual as well
as to the exercise of state powers. The theory of fundamental rights distinguishes three basic
functions in the relation between the individual and the state: status negativus, status positivus
and status activus.
The status negativus concerns freedom from interference from the state.
The status positivus refers to the circumstances in which the individual cannot enjoy freedom
without the active intervention of the status it is also concerned with judicial protection, but it
also extends nowadays to many forms of social protection and social services (schooling,
housing, health care and so on).
The status activus refers to the exercise of the individual‘s freedom within and for the state.

Language Rights Approaches:

Human Rights Approach to Language Rights
A human rights approach to language can be framed as a ‘recognize-implement- improve’
method of ensuring state authorities effectively comply with their obligations: laws, policies and
processes must recognize language rights within a human rights framework; authorities must
integrate these in their conduct and activities; and mechanisms must be in place to effectively
address failures and improve compliance.

Tolerance oriented
Tolerance rights are concerned with protecting individuals against the state’s interference with
their private language choices , these rights permit the minority speakers to use their language or
whatever language.

Promotion oriented
As you can tell from the title it is concerned with promoting a language , it involves the use of a
particular language by public and private institutions in order to promote that language , they are
rights that an individual might have to the public use of a particular language ( court, public
school system, the delivery of public services usage they like in associations and institutions of
The civil society .

Assimilation-oriented Rights:
Assimilation-oriented rights are types of language rights refer to the aim of the law to assimilate
all citizens within the country, and range from prohibition to toleration. An example of
prohibition type laws is the treatment of Kurds in Turkey as well as Turks in Iran, where they are
forbidden to use the Kurdish and Turkish languages.

Maintenance-oriented rights:
Maintenance-oriented rights refer to laws aiming to enable the maintenance of all languages
within a country, and range from permission to promotion. An example of laws that promote
language rights is the Basque Normalization Law, where the Basque language is promoted. The
neutral point between assimilation-orientation and maintenance-orientation is non-
discrimination prescription, which forbids discrimination based on language.

Principles
Personality Principles:
These rights are implying that all citizens have the same set of official language rights no matter
where they are in the county.

Territoriality principles:
The principle of territoriality refers to language rights that are being focused solely within a
territory . Language rights should vary from a region to another according to local conditions, An
example of the application of territoriality is the case of Switzerland, where linguistic rights are
defined within clearly divided language-based cantons.

Why Bother Implementing Language Rights?

It improves access to and quality of education of minority languages.
It promotes equality and empowerment of minority women.
It enhances better use of resources.
It improves communication and public services.
It contributes to stability and conflict-prevention.
It promotes diversity.

Language Rights and the Legal Status in Different Countries:

Canada
Austria
New Zealand
India
Regional Platform (Africa)
The Organization of African Unity (OAU) (1963)
The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (1986)
The African Academy of Languages (ACALAN) (2001)
The African Court of Justice and Human Rights (2004) (Bouali, 2012)

Linguistic situation of Africa:

In Zeleza’s words: “Colonialism not only brought European languages to Africa, it also sought to
invent indigenous languages, and to establish hierarchies between them, in which the European
languages were hegemonic, as part of the process of constructing colonial states, spaces, and
societies.”
Language policy and practice in Africa (Innocent Maja, 2008)

Amazigh languages in North Africa

33 centuries of existence and history
Assimilating policy 1956-61
Exclusion of Amazigh languages
Emergency of Amazigh movement 1967-80
Reorganization of cultural resistance (ago)
National, regional and international Amazigh network 1980-1991-1993 (Belkassm, 2008)

The UN Conventions for the Protection of Linguistic Rights in Morocco &

Algeria:
The Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and
Linguistic Minorities, Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, International Covenant
on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights. (United Nations 1976, 1992, 2007)

MOTHER TONGUES & LANGUAGES OF MOROCCO:

Modern Standard Arabic: literacy, education, administration, media, religion
The «darija» or Moroccan Arabic : informal communication, some media; unwritten
Tamazight: informal communication, some media; despite recently developed orthography,
literacy is rare
Hassanya: Also known as Moor. Over 40 000 in Southern Morocco people speak this form of
Arabic
French: education, business, administration, media (Arsalane 20Amazig

Official Language policy in Morocco

The Arabization popolic

Amazigh movement’s claims

AGADIR Charter Claims (1991) and Amazigh Manifest (2000)
Legal and constitutional recognition
Democratization of linguistic policy
Linguistic and cultural rights
Integration of Amazigh languages in the educational system
Integration of Amazigh language in the media
Establishment of institute for Amazigh language (Belkassm, 2008)

Negotiations and Recognition:

Legal and constitutional recognition:
Establishment of High Commissariat for Tamazight (1993) and legal and constitutional
recognition in Algeria (1996)
Legal and collective recognition 2001(July) and the establishment of Royal Institute for Amazigh
Culture in Morocco (October 2001)
Partnership convention for Integration of Amazigh languages in education system 2003-2004
Partnership convention for Integration of Amazigh language in the media
Partnership conventions with other institutions

integration of Amazigh Language in Educational System And Media:

New Linguistic policy for Amazigh language in Morocco and Algeria
Adoption of TIFINNAGH (Amazigh writing) and standardization in Latin and Arabic in Algeria
Amazigh language for all Moroccan children and for all levels progressively since 2003-2004/in
some regions in Algeria
Didactics materials in Amazigh language
Training programs for teachers
New dynamic with mother language in schools

Realizations and Challenges:

Educational System
Ancestral writing system TIFINNAGH has become the official Graphic System ; recognized by
the ISO-Unicode on June 2004
Progressive standardization of Amazigh language
Didactic materials elaborated for five levels of the primary
Elaboration of conceptions and programs of training
Sessions of training for teachers every year since 2003
Absence of Constitutional recognition
Human resources insufficient
Education budget is not enough
Absence of the professional training for teachers
Assimilating policy resistance (Belkassm, 2008)

Conclusion:
In a nutshell, what we are to bear in mind about everything we have highlighted about language
rights and their legal status is that there are always languages that are dominant, but at the
expense of others no matter what language planning and policies implemented to create a
somewhat equal grounding for all languages. That is what we have covered in this work by
providing different examples from the international and national context and that is what
language rights are all about. They try to shed light on that injustice standing among languages
and what language policies are implemented to enforce the dominant languages over minority
ones.