independent Cornish news and comment

LANGUAGE RIGHTS DECLARATION - POSITIVE MOVES

In November 2007, the Celtic League wrote to the Bureau of the Follow-up
Committee on the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights (UDLR)
to ascertain what progress was being made to pursue the objectives
enshrined in the Declaration.


The Celtic League was one of the original signatories of the UDLR
in Barcelona in 1996, which was signed by a large number of NGO´s,
language experts, consultant bodies and language groups from around
the world in an attempt to persuade the United Nations to adopt the
Declaration and apply pressure on state Governments to ratify it.

The Celtic League have now this week received a reply from the Follow-up
Committee who have confirmed that progress has been made. The Follow
up Committee's Technical Secretary states in his letter that during
2007:

"...there have been two meetings in Geneva with the former (Ambassador
Luis Alfonso de Alba) and the current (Ambassador Doru-Romulus Costea)
President of the United Nations' Human Rights Council (and Aureli
Argemí and Josep-Maria Terricabras, Vice-president and President of
the UDLR Follow-up Committee), the second one took place at the end
of December 2007."

It was further stated that:

"Both Ambassadors are willing to support the UDLR" and that "Ambassador
De Alba considered that linguistic rights should be an issue to take
into account when dealing with human rights in every country/state,
and Ambassador Costea also agrees on this point."

In addition to this, the Follow-up Committee say that "an act related
to the UN International Year of Languages 2008, at the UN' headquarters
in Geneva" will take place "to promote the UDLR among the other ambassadors
in order to be adopted as a UN' Convention."

Needless to say the Celtic League will be further writing to the Follow-up
Committee to determine the nature of this act and will be available
to help lobby other Ambassadors to the UN and their Governments to
adopt the Declaration. One of the main aims of the League in this
respect will be to lobby the French Government to adopt the Declaration
in support of the Breton language community.

As it will be remembered, the League wrote to the previous French
Ambassador to the UN, Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, on several occasions,
to ask him for clarification of French motives in originally proposing
the motion to make 2008 the UN International Year of Languages. In
the past, the French position has been fully against the promotion
and recognition of its other state languages, including Breton. The
League wrote to de La Sabliere to ask if the UN motion signalled a
thawing of French policy on the issue. The League will also write
to the new French Ambassador to the UN, Jean-Maurice Ripert, who took
over from de La Sabliere in August 2007.

The League has also written a number of times to the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in recent
months to get them to update their Red Book of Endangered Languages,
with regard to the Cornish and Manx languages. The Red Book states
that these respective languages are extinct, when in fact they are
not.

The full text of the letter from the UDLR Follow-up Committee (including
their website address) can be found below:

"Dear Mr. Tal-e-bot,

During the year 2007 there have been two meetings in Geneva with the
former ((Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba) and the current (Ambassador
Doru-Romulus Costea) President of the United Nations' Human Rights
Council (and Aureli Argemí and Josep-Maria Terricabras, Vice-president
and President of the UDLR Follow-up Committee), the second one took
place at the end of December 2007. Both Ambassadors are willing to
support the UDLR, Ambassador De Alba considered that linguistic rights
should be an issue to take into account when dealing with human rights
in every country/state, and Ambassador Costea also agrees on this
point.

So during this year 2008, the UDLR Follow-up Committee, with the support
of Ambassador Costea, the President of the Humans Rights Council,
will organize an act related to the UN International Year of Languages
2008, at the UN' headquarters in Geneva, to promote the UDLR among
the other ambassadors in order to be adopted as a UN' Convention.
We can say that this is something quite important, and it is very
positive for the Declaration to become a Convention of the UN, but
it depends on the other ambassadors.

It is still possible to give support to the UDLR as an entity/organization.

We will provide you with an up-to-date list of the members of the
UDLR Follow-up Scientific Council a.s.a.p., we are currently working
on this in order to update the UDLR webpage, so it will appear there
as well.

Yours sincerely,

Technical Secretary
UDLR Follow-up Committee
CIEMEN, Barcelona

http://www.linguistic-declaration.org"


See related article on Celtic News at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/celtic_league/message/2377


Also see related article in older Celtic News archive at:

http://celticleague.net/archive/cl06-96.html


J B Moffatt
Director of Information
Celtic League

07/03/08