Approved at the start of the World Conference on Linguistic Rights held at the University of Barcelona, the declaration proclaims equal rights without differentiation between language types, and considers the collective and individual aspects of these rights to be inseparable.
The Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights (UDLR) turns twenty this year, with the anniversary of the World Conference on Linguistic Rights to be celebrated at the University of Barcelona’s Paranimf venue on 6 June. The Barcelona Declaration, as it is also known, was approved at the start of the meeting, which was attended by 61 NGOs, 41 PEN centres and 40 experts in linguistic law from around the world. The conference was organised by the International PEN Club’s Translations and Linguistic Rights Commission and CIEMEN (the Escarré International Center for Ethnic Minorities and Nations), with the backing and technical support of UNESCO. It was also a ground-breaking process in terms of its substance and form.
The seeds of the UDLR were sown during the extraordinary meeting of the PEN Club’s Translations and Linguistic Rights Commission in Palma de Mallorca in December 1993, when the writers’ association assessed the need to draw up a text that could be placed on the table of international institutions, as a point of departure for work by government experts. Thus, on 6 June 1996 the document, signed and ratified by the hundred-odd conference delegates, was delivered to Andri Isaksson, official representative of the Director-General of UNESCO, Federico Mayor Zaragoza.
One of the unique features of the process was the drafting of the text itself, carried out over three years with sixteen different drafts. One could say that by the time the proponents got to Barcelona, the work had already been done. They were the precursors of something that is today very much in the spotlight: networking. This is because during the process of drafting the UDLR, all the organisations and experts were able to form a network, work collectively and in coordination with one another and share the different views they had regarding the protection that the declaration had to give to linguistic communities around the world.
The importance of collective rights
Some experts say that 80% of the world’s languages will disappear during the 21st century, which will entail the loss of significant resources that are worth preserving. That being the case, the advocates of the UDLR argued that plurilingualism and linguistic diversity are the promoters of linguistic peace. The fundamental principle is that neither the differences between populations (economic, social, religious, cultural or demographic) nor the features of languages justify any kind of discrimination: all linguistic communities must have the same rights.
Therefore, one of the objectives of the UDLR was to proclaim equal linguistic rights, without differentiating between official and non-official, majority and minority, regional and local, modern or archaic languages. The aim was to give the same status to the world’s six thousand languages, while seeking to put linguistic law at the heart of communities. In other words, the text considers that the collective and individual aspects of linguistic rights are inseparable and that individuals can only use one language within the community.
PEN International’s Committee of Translation and Language Rights, which met in Barcelona in June of 2012, coinciding with the official presentation of the Girona Manifesto.
Photo: PEN Català.
As you might guess, this approach is not exactly straightforward. Unsurprisingly, some states believe that these rights are individual and, as a consequence, they do not share this collective vision of linguistic rights. At the same time, it is also worth remembering that ensuring the coexistence between different communities and persons within the same space is no simple matter. To resolve this, the declaration was based on a concept that took into account the communities that were historically established within a territory.
In parallel, the UDLR sets out various aspects that would need to be regulated: public administration and official bodies, education, naming, media and new technologies, culture and the socioeconomic sphere. It establishes three additional provisions, which give public authorities responsibility for taking measures and ensuring that the UDLR is implemented, as well as providing for penalties for those who breach it. Two of the final provisions propose creating a Council of Languages within the United Nations and a World Commission for Linguistic Rights that are unofficial and advisory in nature, formed by representatives of NGOs and organisations from the field of linguistic law.
American linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky who gave his support to the Girona Manifesto.
Photo: PEN Català.
The UDLR is a benchmark text. It has, naturally, served as the basis for drafting new national legislation on linguistic rights, and even some constitutional reforms. However, while it is true that it has never been ratified by the United Nations, new paths have been opened up in defence of linguistic rights: firstly, the Girona Manifesto, promoted by the PEN Club, which encouraged the spread and implementation of the UDLR and was translated into
Writer Easterine Kire from the Indian state of Nagaland, who gave her support to the Girona Manifesto.
Photo: PEN Català.
around 50 languages; and secondly, the conference to be held from 8-10 December 2016 in San Sebastian – the 2016 European Capital of Culture – which will focus on linguistic diversity as one of Europe’s main sources of wealth.
In conclusion, the UDLR is a vitally important text for languages around the world. It is today and it will be in future. It also is, and will be, a window of opportunity that speakers, communities and international organisations cannot afford to let pass them by. Moreover, it should be remembered that twenty years on there is still unfinished business: there is still a need to create the conditions for respecting and adequately managing this diversity that will make it possible to take on the challenge to achieve coexistence and linguistic peace around the world.