Oriol Ramon i Mimó
CIEMEN
Secretary General of the Universal Declaration
of Linguistic Rights Follow-up Committee
1. The process
From the 6th to the 8th of June, 1996, 61 NGOs, 41 PEN Centers and 40 experts in linguistic rights from all over the world met in Barcelona. The convocation of the World Conference on Linguistic Rights (WCLR) was an initiative of the Translations and Linguistic Rights Commission of the International PEN Club and the CIEMEN (Centre Internacional Escarré per a les Minories Ètniques i les Nacions, Escarré International Center for Ethnic Minorities and the Nations) with the moral and technical support of UNESCO.
The Assembly of Participants at the WCLR approved the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights (UDLR) in a ceremony held on June 6th at the Auditorium of the University of Barcelona. The delegates of the NGOs, PEN Centers and experts signed the document during the same ceremony, at the end of which they presented the text and the document containing the signatures to Mr. Andri Isaksson, official representative of the UNESCO Director General. In this way, the non-governmental associative sphere has handed over a text to UNESCO that will become the starting point for the work of the governmental experts. All of this would not have been possible without a common working aim which, within UNESCO, was begun by the Linguapax Project.
Two days later, on June 8th, at the La Pedrera Auditorium, NGOs, PEN Centers and experts decided to create a Follow-up Committee of the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights (FCUDLR). A month later, Mr. Federico Mayor Zaragoza, Director General of UNESCO, received the organizers of the WCLR and, with them, the text and the process.
2. The context
The Declaration is a long and complex document. It could not be otherwise, for the subject in itself is complex and it is even more so because the aim of the writers has been to gather, as democratically as possible, the opinions expressed by many people and organizations from all over the world.
The proposal to write the Declaration was prompted by an extraordinary session of the Translations and Linguistic Rights Commission of the PEN Club International held in Palma de Mallorca in December 1993. At the beginning of 1994, an organizing committee was created and in September that year process of reflection on the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights was begun when the organizers promoting the Conference ordered it to be written by a team of experts from various fields and working spheres. Forty experts of various countries participated in the elaboration of the first twelve drafts.
The new communication technology made possible a wide debate on the contents of the Declaration between individuals and institutions of all continents.
The diversity of the contributions that the team of experts received progressively throughout the process of compilation was a determining factor for the Declaration's reflecting the multiplicity of sociological contexts and maintaining a balance of perspective, unusual hitherto.
One of the aims of the writers was to define equitable linguistic rights, but not by subordinating them to the political or administrative status of the territory to which a given linguistic community belongs, nor to criteria such as the degree of codification or the number of speakers; these criteria have not been taken into consideration legally. For this reason, the Declaration proclaims the equality of linguistic rights, without any non-pertinent distinctions between official / non-official, regional / local, majority / minority, or modern / archaic languages.
One of the most important contributions to Linguistic Law is found in the fact that the Declaration considers inseparable and interdependent the collective and individual dimensions of linguistic rights, for language is collectively constituted within a community; it is also within this community that people make a personal use of it. In this way, the practice of individual linguistic rights can only be made effective if the collective rights of all communities and all linguistic groups are respected by everyone.
The articulation of the linguistic rights of communities, groups and individuals, while cohabiting the same space, is essential to guarantee coexistence, but it appears to be extremely complex. This is the reason why the Declaration takes into account the rights of linguistic communities historically established in their territory in order to set up a scale of references, to be applied in each individual case, of the rights of linguistic groups with various degrees of historicity and self-identification, as well as of the individuals who live outside their native community.
Although the practice of linguistic rights may depend on the available resources, it would be unfair to negate the validity of these rights by claiming a lack of means. For this reason, the Declaration reminds us that to apply rights so universally recognized today such as the right to life, health, work and education it requires considerable financing; it asks for a unified international commitment which would compensate, also in this domain, the deficits and promote the rights of the most disadvantaged people.
The variety of factors that condition the position of languages, the difficult convergence of community, group and individual interests and the necessary interrelation between linguistic rights and other fundamental rights, make it impossible to define equal measures to be applied in all cases. This is the reason why the Declaration, although underlining the unavoidable obligations of public power, is centered around rights and not around obligations or prohibitions; it puts the accent on seeking solutions adapted to each case starting from a democratic consensus.
3. Linguistic peace
Therefore, the Declaration is a text that becomes necessary, as it is manifested in its Preliminaries "to correct the linguistic imbalances with a view to ensuring the respect and full development of all languages establishing the principles for a just and equitable linguistic throughout the world as a key factor in the maintenance of harmonious social relations".
And if this peace is to be fair and equitable it is because in the bases of the Declaration lies the basic principle of the equality of all peoples and languages. Neither economic, social, religious, cultural, demographic, etc. features nor linguistic features justify any sort of discrimination; therefore, all linguistic communities are subject to the same rights.
All predictions indicate that during the XXI century, 80% of the languages from all over the world may disappear. This highlights an unavoidable issue: that multilingualism and linguistic diversity must contribute to the culture of peace in the same way as the latter must contribute to preserve diversity.
This reciprocal relationship will be achieved if the development of a culture of peace explores the values provided by languages as elements for integration. In this sense, the UDLR favours a new perception of the concept of linguistic diversity: that which understands that ALL languages are patrimony of mankind and transmits the conviction that this patrimony is not a property but a legacy and must not be squandered. With each language that disappears, the world ecolinguistic balance is altered and the rapidity and proliferation of the substitution processes may imply unforeseeable consequences that have already been detected in various collective pathologies. It is here where the great contribution that the UDLR may make to the culture of peace is found: to promote the awareness that linguistic diversity is not only necessary but that it is an essential contribution to mankind's knowledge for it provides us with one of the many ways of understanding the world.
Besides, present conditions of life facilitate the acceleration of linguistic substitution processes and it is for this reason that our perception of language has to be modified; the myth of linguistic diversity as a barrier for communication and integration is not true: on the contrary, the fact that language is a tangible reality makes it a fundamental element for integration. And, indeed, what makes language essential in a culture of peace is the fact that it can be transmitted and accumulated: it is a wealth which is accessible to all and its acquisition does not imply any renunciation.
The Declaration has been created in a moment when the linguistic diversity of the Earth is seriously threatened. Many factors have brought about this situation:
"o The age-old unifying tendency of the majority of states to reduce diversity and to foster attitudes opposed to cultural plurality and linguistic pluralism.
o The trend towards a worldwide economy and consequently towards a worldwide market of information, communication and culture, which disrupts the spheres of interrelation and the forms of interaction that guarantee the internal cohesion of language communities.
o The economicist growth model put forward by transnational economic groups and which seeks to identify deregulation with progress and competitive individualism with freedom generates serious and growing economic, social, cultural and linguistic inequality." (Preamble)
The Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights opposes these factors with a conception of universalism based on linguistic and cultural diversity which together would overcome the homogenizing tendencies and the those towards exclusive isolation. It has as fundamental axes:
"o In the 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.
o 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.
o 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." (Preamble)
4. The Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights
The Declaration aims to be applicable to a great diversity of linguistic situations. It has therefore given special attention to the definition of the conceptual apparatus on which its articles are based. Thus, it considers as axes of a linguistic community: historicity, territoriality, self-identification as a people and the fact of having developed a common language as normal means for communication between its members. Consequently, the Declaration defines under its Preliminaries Heading, the native language of a given territory as the language of the community historically established in a specific space. The necessity of preserving the linguistic rights of collectivities displaced from their historic territory (be it due to migration, deportation or other reasons) so that they are compatible with the rights of the linguistic community of the destination place has been taken into consideration in the conceptualization of the linguistic group, which is understood as a human collectivity which shares the same language and which is established in the territorial space of another linguistic community but without an equivalent historicity.
The Declaration does not consider the territory only as a geographic area but also as a social and functional space essential to the full development of a language. This makes it possible, for instance, to consider as linguistic communities the nomad peoples in their historical areas of displacement, and we may understand that the communities which:
"o when they are separated from the main body of their community by political or administrative boundaries;
o when they have been historically established in a small geographical area surrounded by members of other languages communities; or
owhen they are established in a geographical area which they share with the members of other languages communities with similar historical antecedents." (Article 1.3)
The Declaration is based on a balanced articulation between the rights of the communities and linguistic groups, and the rights of the individuals which belong to them. For this reason, besides the relative historicity and the democratically expressed will, the factors that may matter compensatory treatment are taken into consideration. The universalist volition of the Declaration implies in itself a correction of imbalances so that respect and full development of all languages is assured.
Another matter to which the Declaration has given special attention is the articulation between the rights of the communities and linguistic groups and the rights of the individuals which belong to them; therefore neither one nor the other can represent an obstacle to the interrelation and the integration with the receiving linguistic community, nor restrict the rights of this community or of its members in the full public use of their own language thoroughout of their territorial space. Thus, it makes explicit a series of inalienable personal rights which may be exercised in any situation, rights such as:
"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 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 1996 and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the same date." (Article 3.1)
At the same time, it considers a right and an obligation of the individuals who establish themselves in the territory of a different linguistic community to maintain there in relationships promoting integration, understood as a resocialization of these individuals in the society that receives them, while accepting assimilation only as the result of a totally free individual option, assimilation being understood "as the acculturation of the individuals within the society that receives them, so that they substitute their own original cultural features with the references, values and behavior proper to the receiving society." (Article 4.2) To these personal rights, the Declaration adds as rights of linguistic groups:
"the right for their own language ang culture to be taught;
the right of access to cultural services;
the right to an equitable presence of their language and the culture in the communications media;
the right to receive attention in their own language from government bodies and in socioeconomic relations." (Article 3.2)
Besides the general principles, the headings of the Declaration define linguistics rights in the fields of public administration and official bodies, education, onomastics, mass media and new technology, culture and the socioeconomic sphere. The Transitory Provisions refer to the obligation of public powers to do everything possible to ensure the application of the rights proclaimed in the Declaration and to see that authorities, organizations and individuals are informed on the rights and correlative obligations that derive from the Declaration.
Finally, in the Final Provisions, the creation of a Council of the Languages within the United Nations is proposed; the creation of a World Commission for Linguistic Rights is also advocated and iniciated.
5. The follow-up
The Assembly of Participants of the World Conference on Linguistic Rights created a Follow-up Committee of the Declaration with the twofold aim of accompanying the text along its way into UNESCO and obtaining the maximum support of institutions and bodies from all over the world, a support that would reinforce the moral weight of the Declaration and would help to propagate its contents.
The Follow-up Committee created a Scientific Council consisting of experts in Linguistic Law from all over the world. The aim of this Council is to collect new ideas and contributions to complete and improve the contents of the Declaration and to be at the service of UNESCO as long as it requires.
In this book we present all the well-known personalities from all over the world that have given their support to the Declaration and who ask international organizations to take note and work along the lines already taken by the civil society with this UDLR. These personalities represent the great amount of support that we have received during this first year of life of the Declaration, from public bodies as well as from democratic parliaments, NGOs, other PEN Centers and private individuals.
The book, which is to be distributed to state delegations of the UNESCO, seeks with great modesty to propagate the principles of the Declaration among the members of the UNESCO and to contribute to the creation of a working group on linguistic rights within this organization. All of this should bring us a little bit closer to a Linguistic Rights International Convention.
6. Hope
When one speaks about preserving linguistic diversity and the right of all communities to live in their own language, one frequently appeals to the economic cost that all this could imply. However, it would also be necessary to evaluate the economic cost of language substitution:
How much does marginality cost?
What price do we pay for the loss of a tool such as language for adjusting to environment?
What is the cost of an education that uses a code which does not fit the environment?
What is the cost of a pseudo-education of predominating languages which does not capacitate one use them properly?
How much...?
If we are capable of evaluating these costs we will have a convincing argument for those who are still not clearly convinced about the advantages of preserving linguistic diversity and who believe that it is possible to offset the cost of homogenization. Despite the fact that the prognosis for the linguistic diversity is not so encouraging, we believe that the situation is still not irreversible. To stop the process will not be easy but it is possible. UNESCO has a lot to say on this subject.