Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights
The document was adopted at the conclusion of the World Conference on Linguistic Rights held 6–9 June 1996 in Barcelona, Spain.
One of the most significant motivations stemmed from the 12th Seminar of the International Association for the Development of Intercultural Communication of 1987, held in Recife, Brazil, which also recommended the introduction of a declaration for linguistic rights.
[7] The main objective of penning a Declaration was to define equality in linguistic rights, regardless of differences in political or territorial statuses.
It serves to promote international commitment in respecting the rights of linguistic groups, especially those of historicity, as well as individuals who do not reside within their native communities.
There was much complexity tied to the drafting process because it was not easy to come up with equal measures, definitions and reasons, especially since it required an international consensus.
It was later translated into other languages, some of which include Galician, Basque, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Russian, Portuguese, Italian, Nynorsk, Sardinian.
Even so, there have been continuous efforts to bring the Declaration through as UNESCO did not officially endorse the UDLR at its General Conference in 1996,[10] and also in subsequent years, although they morally supported it.
[7] Title One (Articles 7–14) lists general principles asserting equal linguistic rights for language communities and for the individual.
The Additional Dispositions call for the obligation of public powers to take measures ensuring the application of these rights and to inform other related bodies of these proclamations.
[13] The reason is that since the Declaration requires authorities to issue sanctions in the event of violation of the proclaimed rights, doubts have arisen regarding the likelihood of any government adopting the document.
[14] Many governmental groups (other than the regional authorities in Spain such as Catalonia, Menorca and Basque) in most countries find it hard to reconcile these fundamental principles of the Declaration with their current language policies and practices.
Despite the Follow-up Committee's publication of the text in 1998,[7] which was backed by letters of support from world leaders, UNESCO has not ratified the document.
[3][10] On 19 April 2002, CIEMEN and International PEN convoked a summit during the World Congress on Language Policies in Barcelona.
Despite the positive responses to the document, member states perceived a lack of consensus on the matter and did not wish to be among the first to adopt the proposal.
Later in September, the Advisory Committee of the UNHRC was called upon to take steps to present a proposal, in hopes that the UDLR could be added to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
[15] The Girona Manifesto was developed by International PEN's Translation and Linguistic Rights in May 2011 to commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of the Declaration.
[22] To date, the UDLR has received the support of many international personalities, some of whom have included: Nelson Mandela, Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, Ronald Harwood, Homero Aridjis, Noam Chomsky, José Ramos-Horta, Dalai Lama, Dr. M. Aram, Desmond Tutu, László Tőkés, Ricardo María Carles Gordó, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, José Carreras, Seamus Heaney, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Shimon Peres, Judit Mascó, Peter Gabriel, Jennifer Clement and Joan Oró.
