DECLARATION UNIVERSAL OF LINGUISTIC RIGHTS
PRELIMINARIES
The institutions and non-governmental organizations,
signatories to the present Universal Declaration of
Linguistic Rights, meeting in Barcelona from 6 to 9 June
1996,
Having regard to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human
Rights which, in its preamble, expresses its faith in
fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the
human person and in the equal rights of men and women; and
which, in its second article, establishes that everyone is
entitled to all the rights and freedoms regardless of
race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other
opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other
status;
Having regard to the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights of 16 December 1966 (Article 27), and the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights of the same date which, in their preambles, state
that human beings cannot be free unless conditions are
created which enable them to enjoy both their civil and
political rights and their economic, social and cultural
rights;
Having regard to Resolution 47/135 of 18 December 1992 of
the General Assembly of the United Nations Organization
which adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Persons
belonging to National, Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic
Minorities;
Having regard to the declarations and conventions of the
Council of Europe, such as the European Convention for the
Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, of 4
November 1950 (Article 14); the Convention of the Council of
Ministers of the Council of Europe, of 29 June 1992,
approving the European Charter for Regional or Minority
Languages; the Declaration on National Minorities made by
the Summit Meeting of the Council of Europe on 9 October
1993; and the Framework Convention for the Protection of
National Minorities of November 1994;
Having regard to the Santiago de Compostela Declaration of
the International PEN Club and the Declaration of 15
December 1993 of the Translations and Linguistic Rights
Committee of the International PEN Club concerning the
proposal to hold a World Conference on Linguistic Rights;
Considering that, in the Recife, Brazil, Declaration of 9
October 1987, the 12th Seminar of the International
Association for the Development of Intercultural
Communication recommended the United Nations Organization to
take the necessary steps to approve and implement a
Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights;
Having regard to Convention 169 of the International Labour
Organization of 26 June 1989 concerning Indigenous and
Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries;
Having regard to the Universal Declaration of the Collective
Rights of Peoples, Barcelona, May 1990, which declared that
all peoples have the right to express and develop their
culture, language and rules of organization and, to this
end, to adopt political, educational, communications and
governmental structures of their own, within different
political frameworks;
Having regard to the Final Declaration adopted by the
General Assembly of the International Federation of Modern
Language Teachers in Pcs (Hungary) on 16 August 1991, which
recommended that linguistic rights be considered as
fundamental rights of the individual;
Having regard to the report of the Human Rights Commission
of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, of 20
April 1994, concerning the draft Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples, which viewed individual rights in the
light of collective rights;
Having Regard to the draft Declaration of the Inter-American
Human Rights Commission on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,
approved at session 1278 on 18 September 1995;
Considering that the majority of the world's endangered
languages belong to non-sovereign peoples and that the main
factors which prevent the development of these languages and
accelerate the process of language substitution include the
lack of self-government and the policy of states which
impose their political and administrative structures and
their language;
Considering that invasion, colonization, occupation and
other instances of political, economic or social
subordination often involve the direct imposition of a
foreign language or, at the very least, distort perceptions
of the value of languages and give rise to hierarchical
linguistic attitudes which undermine the language loyalty of
speakers; and considering that the languages of some peoples
which have attained sovereignty are consequently immersed in
a process of language substitution as a result of a policy
which favours the language of former colonial or imperial
powers;
Considering that universalism must be based on a conception
of linguistic and cultural diversity which prevails over
trends towards homogenization and towards exclusionary
isolation;
Considering that, in order to ensure peaceful coexistence
between language communities, overall principles must be
found so as to guarantee the promotion and respect of all
languages and their social use in public and in private;
Considering that various factors of an extralinguistic
nature (historical, political, territorial, demographic,
economic, sociocultural and sociolinguistic factors and
those related to collective attitudes) give rise to problems
which lead to the extinction, marginalization and
degeneration of numerous languages, and that linguistic
rights must therefore be examined in an overall perspective,
so as to apply appropriate solutions in each case;
In the belief that a Universal Declaration of Linguistic
Rights is required in order to correct linguistic imbalances
with a view to ensuring the respect and full development of
all languages and establishing the principles for a just and
equitable linguistic peace throughout the world as a key
factor in the maintenance of harmonious social relations;
HEREBY DECLARE THAT
PREAMBLE
The situation of each language, in view of the foregoing
considerations, is the result of the convergence and
interaction of a wide range of factors of a political and
legal, ideological and historical, demographic and
territorial, economic and social, cultural, linguistic and
sociolinguistic, interlinguistic and subjective nature.
At the present time, these factors are defined by:
. The age-old unifying tendency of the majority of states to
reduce diversity and foster attitudes opposed to cultural
plurality and linguistic pluralism.
. The trend towards a worldwide economy and consequently
towards a worldwide market of information, communications
and culture, which disrupts the spheres of interrelation and
the forms of interaction that guarantee the internal
cohesion of language communities.
. The economicist growth model put forward by transnational
economic groups which seeks to identify deregulation with
progress and competitive individualism with freedom and
generates serious and growing economic, social, cultural and
linguistic inequality.
Language communities are currently threatened by a lack of
self-government, a limited population or one that is
partially or wholly dispersed, a fragile economy, an
uncodified language, or a cultural model opposed to the
dominant one, which make it impossible for many languages to
survive and develop unless the following basic goals are
taken into account:
. In a political perspective, the goal of conceiving a way
of organizing linguistic diversity so as to permit the
effective participation of language communities in this new
growth model.
. In a cultural perspective, the goal of rendering the
worldwide communications space compatible with the equitable
participation of all peoples, language communities and
individuals in the development process.
. In an economic perspective, the goal of fostering
sustainable development based on the participation of all
and on respect for the ecological balance of societies and
for equitable relationships between all languages and
cultures.
For all these reasons, this Declaration takes language
communities and not states as its point of departure and is
to be viewed in the context of the reinforcement of
international institutions capable of guaranteeing
sustainable and equitable development for the whole of
humanity. For these reasons also it aims to encourage the
creation of a political framework for linguistic diversity
based upon respect, harmonious coexistence and mutual
benefit.
PRELIMINARY TITLE Concepts
Article 1
1. This Declaration considers as a language community any
human society established historically in a particular
territorial space, whether this space be recognized or
not, which identifies itself as a people and has
developed a common language as a natural means of
communication and cultural cohesion among its
members. The term language proper to a territory refers
to the language of the community historically established
in such a space.
2. This Declaration takes as its point of departure the
principle that linguistic rights are individual and
collective at one and the same time. In defining the full
range of linguistic rights, it adopts as its referent the
case of a historical language community within its own
territorial space, this space being understood, not only
as the geographical area where the community lives, but
also as the social and functional space vital to the full
development of the language. Only on this basis is it
possible to define the rights of the language groups
mentioned in point 5 of the present article, and those of
individuals living outside the territory of their
community, in terms of a gradation or continuum.
3. For the purpose of this Declaration, groups are also
deemed to be in their own territory and to belong to a
language community in the following circumstances:
i. when they are separated from the main body of their
community by political or administrative boundaries;
ii. when they have been historically established in a small
geographical area surrounded by members of otherlanguage
communities; or
iii. when they are established in a geographical area which
they share with the members of other language communities
with similar historical antecedents.
4. This Declaration also considers nomad peoples within
their areas of migration and peoples established in
geographically dispersed locations as language
communities in their own historical territory.
5. This Declaration considers as a language group any group
of persons sharing the same language which is established
in the territorial space of another language community
but which does not possess historical antecedents
equivalent to those of that community. Examples of such
groups are immigrants, refugees, deported persons and
members of diasporas.
Article 2
1. This Declaration considers that, whenever various
language communities and groups share the same territory,
the rights formulated in this Declaration must be
exercised on a basis of mutual respect and in such a way
that democracy may be guaranteed to the greatest possible
extent.
2. In the quest for a satisfactory sociolinguistic balance,
that is, in order to establish the appropriate
articulation between the respective rights of such
language communities and groups and the persons belonging
to them, various factors, besides their respective
historical antecedents in the territory and their
democratically expressed will, must be taken into
account. Such factors, which may call for compensatory
treatment aimed at restoring a balance, include the
coercive nature of the migrations which have led to the
coexistence of the different communities and groups, and
their degree of political, socioeconomic and cultural
vulnerability.
Article 3
1. This Declaration considers the following to be
inalienable personal rights which may be exercised in any
situation:
the right to be recognized as a member of a language
community;
the right to the use of one's own language both in private
and in public;
the right to the use of one's own name;
the right to interrelate and associate with other members of
one's language community of origin;
the right to maintain and develop one's own culture;
and all the other rights related to language which are
recognized in the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights of 16 December 1966 and the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the same
date.
2. This Declaration considers that the collective rights of
language groups may include the following, in addition to
the rights attributed to the members of language groups
in the foregoing paragraph, and in accordance with the
conditions laid down in article 2.2:
the right for their own language and culture to be taught;
the right of access to cultural services;
the right to an equitable presence of their language and
culture in the communications media;
the right to receive attention in their own language from
government bodies and in socioeconomic relations.
3. The aforementioned rights of persons and language groups
must in no way hinder the interrelation of such persons
or groups with the host language community or their
integration into that community. Nor must they restrict
the rights of the host community or its members to the
full public use of the community's own language
throughout its territorial space.
Article 4
1. This Declaration considers that persons who move to and
settle in the territory of another language community
have the right and the duty to maintain an attitude of
integration towards this community. This term is
understood to mean an additional socialization of such
persons in such a way that they may preserve their
original cultural characteristics while sharing with the
society in which they have settled sufficient references,
values and forms of behaviour to enable them to function
socially without greater difficulties than those
experienced by members of the host community.
2. This Declaration considers, on the other hand, that
assimilation, a term which is understood to mean
acculturation in the host society, in such a way that the
original cultural characteristics are replaced by the
references, values and forms of behaviour of the host
society, must on no account be forced or induced and can
only be the result of an entirely free choice.
Article 5
This Declaration is based on the principle that the rights
of all language communities are equal and independent of the
legal or political status of their languages as official,
regional or minority languages. Terms such as regional or
minority languages are not used in this Declaration because,
though in certain cases the recognition of regional or
minority languages can facilitate the exercise of certain
rights, these and other modifiers are frequently used to
restrict the rights of language communities.
Article 6
This Declaration considers that a language cannot be
considered proper to a territory merely on the grounds that
it is the official language of the state or has been
traditionally used within the territory for administrative
purposes or for certain cultural activities.
TITLE ONE General Principles
Article 7
1. All languages are the expression of a collective identity
and of a distinct way of perceiving and describing
reality and must therefore be able to enjoy the
conditions required for their development in all
functions.
2. All languages are collectively constituted and are made
available within a community for individual use as tools
of cohesion, identification, communication and creative
expression.
Article 8
1. All language communities have the right to organize and
manage their own resources so as to ensure the use of
their language in all functions within society.
2. All language communities are entitled to have at their
disposal whatever means are necessary to ensure the
transmission and continuity of their language.
Article 9
All language communities have the right to codify,
standardize, preserve, develop and promote their linguistic
system, without induced or forced interference.
Article 10
1. All language communities have equal rights.
2. This Declaration considers discrimination against
language communities to be inadmissible, whether it be
based on their degree of political sovereignty, their
situation defined in social, economic or other terms, the
extent to which their languages have been codified,
updated modernized, or or on any other criterion.
3. All necessary steps must be taken in order to implement
this principle of equality and to render it effective.
Article 11
All language communities are entitled to have at their
disposal whatever means of translation into and from other
languages are needed to guarantee the exercise of the rights
contained in this Declaration.
Article 12
1. Everyone has the right to carry out all activities in the
public sphere in his/her language, provided it is the
language proper to the territory where s/he resides.
2. Everyone has the right to use his/her language in the
personal and family sphere.
Article 13
1. Everyone has the right to acquire knowledge of the
language proper to the territory in which s/he lives.
2. Everyone has the right to be polyglot and to know and use
the language most conducive to his/her personal
development or social mobility, without prejudice to the
guarantees established in this Declaration for the public
use of the language proper to the territory.
Article 14
The provisions of this Declaration cannot be interpreted or
used to the detriment of any norm or practice deriving from
the internal or international status of a language which is
more favourable to its use within the territory to which it
is proper.
SECOND TITLE Overall linguistic rgime
Section I Public administration and official bodies
Article 15
1. All language communities are entitled to the official use
of their language within their territory.
2. All language communities have the right for legal and
administrative acts, public and private documents and
records in public registers which are drawn up in the
language of the territory to be valid and effective and
no one can allege ignorance of this language.
Article 16
All members of a language community have the right to
interrelate with and receive attention from the public
authorities in their own language. This right also applies
to central, territorial, local and supraterritorial
divisions which include the territory to which the language
is proper.
Article 17
1. All language communities are entitled to have at their
disposal and to obtain in their own language all official
documents pertaining to relations which affect the
territory to which the language is proper, whether such
documents be in printed, machine-readable or any other
form.
2. Forms and standard administrative documents, whether in
printed, machine-readable or any other form, must be made
available and placed at the disposal of the public in all
territorial languages by the public authorities through
the services which cover the territories to which each
language is proper.
Article 18
1. All language communities have the right for laws and
other legal provisions which concern them to be published
in the language proper to the territory.
2. Public authorities who have more than one territorially
historic language within their jurisdiction must publish
all laws and other legal provisions of a general nature
in each of these languages, whether or not their speakers
understand other languages.
Article 19
1. Representative Assemblies must have as their official
language(s) the language(s) historically spoken in the
territory they represent.
2. This right also applies to the languages of the
communities established in geographically dispersed
locations referred to in Article 1, Paragraph 4.
Article 20
1. Everyone has the right to use the language historically
spoken in a territory, both orally and in writing, in the
Courts of Justice located within that territory. The
Courts of Justice must use the language proper to the
territory in their internal actions and, if on account of
the legal system in force within the state, the
proceedings continue elsewhere, the use of the original
language must be maintained.
2. Everyone has the right, in all cases, to be tried in a
language which s/he understands and can speak and to
obtain the services of an interpreter free of charge.
Article 21
All language communities have the right for records in
public registers to be drawn up in the language proper to
the territory.
Article 22
All language communities have the right for documents
authenticated by notaries public or certified by other
authorized public servants to be drawn up in the language
proper to the territory where the notary or other authorized
public servant performs his/her functions.
Section II Education
Article 23
1. Education must help to foster the capacity for linguistic
and cultural self-expression of the language community of
the territory where it is provided.
2. Education must help to maintain and develop the language
spoken by the language community of the territory where
it is provided.
3. Education must always be at the service of linguistic and
cultural diversity and of harmonious relations between
different language communities throughout the world.
4. Within the context of the foregoing principles, everyone
has the right to learn any language.
Article 24
All language communities have the right to decide to what
extent their language is to be present, as a vehicular
language and as an object of study, at all levels of
education within their territory: preschool, primary,
secondary, technical and vocational, university, and adult
education.
Article 25
All language communities are entitled to have at their
disposal all the human and material resources necessary to
ensure that their language is present to the extent they
desire at all levels of education within their territory:
properly trained teachers, appropriate teaching methods,
text books, finance, buildings and equipment, traditional
and innovative technology.
Article 26
All language communities are entitled to an education which
will enable their members to acquire a full command of their
own language, including the different abilities relating to
all the usual spheres of use, as well as the most extensive
possible command of any other language they may wish to
know.
Article 27
All language communities are entitled to an education which
will enable their members to acquire knowledge of any
languages related to their own cultural tradition, such as
literary or sacred languages which were formerly habitual
languages of the community.
Article 28
All language communities are entitled to an education which
will enable their members to acquire a thorough knowledge of
their cultural heritage (history, geography, literature, and
other manifestations of their own culture), as well as the
most extensive possible knowledge of any other culture they
may wish to know.
Article 29
1. Everyone is entitled to receive an education in the
language proper to the territory where s/he resides.
2. This right does not exclude the right to acquire oral and
written knowledge of any language which may be of use to
him/her as an instrument of communication with other
language communities.
Article 30
The language and culture of all language communities must be
the subject of study and research at university level.
Section III Proper names
Article 31
All language communities have the right to preserve and use
their own system of proper names in all spheres and on all
occasions.
Article 32
1. All language communities have the right to use place
names in the language proper to the territory, both
orally and in writing, in the private, public and
official spheres.
2. All language communities have the right to establish,
preserve and revise autochthonous place names. Such place
names cannot be arbitrarily abolished, distorted or
adapted, nor can they be replaced if changes in the
political situation, or changes of any other type, occur.
Article 33
All language communities have the right to refer to
themselves by the name used in their own language. Any
translation into other languages must avoid ambiguous or
pejorative denominations.
Article 34
Everyone has the right to the use of his/her own name in
his/her own language in all spheres, as well as the right,
only when necessary, to the most accurate possible phonetic
transcription of his/her name in another writing system.
Section IV Communications media and new technologies
Article 35
All language communities have the right to decide the extent
to which their language is be present in the communications
media in their territory, whether local and traditional
media, those with a wider scope, or those using more
advanced technology, regardless of the method of
dissemination or transmission employed.
Article 36
All language communities are entitled to have at their
disposal all the human and material resources required in
order to ensure the desired degree of presence of their
language and the desired degree of cultural self-expression
in the communications media in their territory: properly
trained personnel, finance, buildings and equipment,
traditional and innovative technology.
Article 37
All language communities have the right to receive, through
the communications media, a thorough knowledge of their
cultural heritage (history, geography, literature and other
manifestations of their own culture), as well as the
greatest possible amount of information about any other
culture their members may wish to know.
Article 38
The languages and cultures of all language communities must
receive equitable and non-discriminatory treatment in the
communications media throughout the world.
Article 39
The communities described in Article 1, paragraphs 3 and 4,
of this Declaration, and the groups mentioned in paragraph 5
of the same article, are entitled to an equitable
representation of their language in the communications media
of the territory where they are established or where they
migrate. This right is to be exercised in harmony with the
rights of the ot...