1RESOLUTION NO. __________ 2 3 TITLE: HAWAI‘I OFFICIAL LANGUAGES ACT 4 5 REQUESTING AN ACT OF THE LEGISLATURE TO PROMOTE THE USE OF THE 6 HAWAIIAN LANGUAGE FOR OFFICIAL PURPOSES IN THE STATE; TO PROVIDE 7 FOR THE USE OF BOTH OFFICIAL LANGUAGES OF THE STATE IN LEGISLATIVE 8 PROCEEDINGS, IN ACTS OF THE LEGISLATURE, IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF 9 JUSTICE, IN COMMUNICATING WITH OR PROVIDING SERVICES TO THE PUBLIC 10 AND IN CARRYING OUT THE WORK OF PUBLIC BODIES; TO SET OUT THE 11 DUTIES OF SUCH BODIES WITH RESPECT TO THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGES OF 12 THE STATE; AND FOR THOSE PURPOSES, TO PROVIDE FOR THE 13 ESTABLISHMENT OF AN OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER OF OFFICIAL 14 LANGUAGES AND TO DEFINE ITS FUNCTIONS; TO PROVIDE FOR THE 15 PUBLICATION BY THE COMMISSIONER OF CERTAIN INFORMATION RELEVANT 16 TO THE PURPOSES OF THIS ACT; AND TO PROVIDE FOR RELATED MATTERS. 17 18 19 WHEREAS, along with Hawai‘i, the list of officially multilingual countries and U.S. 20jurisdictions now numbers no fewer than 44, including Abkhazia, American Samoa, Aotearoa 21(New Zealand), Belgium, Bolivia, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Chad, China (Hong Kong & 22Macau), Czech Republic, Djibouti, Ecuador, Finland, Guam, both cities of Hialeah & Miami 23(Florida) and San Francisco (California), India, Israel, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, 24Kenya, Kyrgyszstan, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, 25Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovenia, Somalia, 26Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom 27(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_multilingual_countries_and_regions and 28http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_languages , see Appendix 1, p. 4); and 29 30 WHEREAS, several other governments provide bilingual services by right for 31indigenous minorities, including Australia, England (Wales) and Mexico 32(http://www.anu.edu.au/linguistics/nash/aust/policy.html , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Language_Act_1993 , and 33http://www.diputados.gob.mx/LeyesBiblio/pdf/257.pdf , see Appendix 2, p. 20); and 34 35 WHEREAS, the U.S. Public Law 103-150 (1993 Apology Bill) resolved by the 36Senate and House of Representatives “recognizes and commends efforts of reconciliation 37initiated by the State of Hawai‘i….(and) supports reconciliation efforts between the United 38States and the Native Hawaiian people” (http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Public_Law_103-150 , see 39Appendix 3, p. 34); and 40 41 . WHEREAS, the state of Hawai‘i generally treats Hawaiian language education as if 42it were enrichment, foreign language education, and because of this perspective, Hawaiian 43speaking children are yet seen as having no right to education in Hawaiian; and fluency in 44Hawaiian is not a minimum qualification for employment in Kula Kaiapuni Hawai‘i, and 45testing of students in Kula Kaiapuni Hawai‘i through Hawaiian has not been provided in 46spite of federal government recognition that national standardized tests as used in Hawai‘i 1 1 1are biased against minority children even when such children are educated through English in 2that such tests do not have a distinct minority culture focus; as a result, there is presently no 3guarantee that Hawaiian speaking children may choose Hawaiian medium education and 4receive transportation to their schools 5(http://www.ahapunanaleo.org/eng/resources/resources_nestmovement.html , see Appendix 4, p. 39); and 6 7 WHEREAS, some Hawaiian children are leaving Hawaiian immersion programs for 8fear of being inadequately prepared for getting accepted into the colleges and universities of 9their choice; and 10 11 WHEREAS, 40 years after the adoption of their Official Languages Act, Canada has 12grown from a country where English predominates to a country proud of its two official 13languages, and support for bilingualism among Canadians is at an all time high 14(http://www.officiallanguages.gc.ca/html/anniversary_anniversaire_e.php and 15http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/reports-rapports/cp-rc/2006- 162007/ann/images/LinguisticDuality-eng.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/reports-rapports/cp-rc/2006- 172007/ann/ann12-eng.asp&usg=__Z1ajcvMVcio- 18MaN6f6CVC3e761I=&h=514&w=500&sz=17&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=- 19bCCBcslFhenhM:&tbnh=131&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dproportion%2Bof%2BCanadians%2Bsupporting%2Blin 20guistic%2Bduality%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en- 21US:official%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1 , see Appendix 5, p. 43); and 22 23 WHEREAS, the Hawai‘i Official Language Act 1) establishes the equality of status 24and equal rights and privileges as to the use of official languages in all institutions of the 25legislature and government of the state, 2) establishes full and equal access to the legislature 26and legislative proceedings, to the laws of the state and to courts established by government 27in both official languages, 3) guarantees the right of any member of the public to 28communicate with, and to receive available services from, any institution of the legislature or 29government in either official language, 4) guarantees officers and employees of government 30institutions and public bodies equal opportunities to use the official language of their choice 31while working together in pursuing the goals of those institutions and public bodies, 5) 32guarantees English-speaking residents of Hawai‘i and Hawaiian-speaking residents of 33Hawai‘i, without regard to their ethnic origin or first language learned, equal opportunities to 34obtain employment in the institutions of government, 6) establishes the State Legislature is 35committed to achieving, with due regard to the principle of selection of personnel according 36to merit, full participation of English-speaking and Hawaiian-speaking residents of Hawai‘i 37in its institutions, 7) establishes the State Legislature is committed to enhancing the vitality 38and supporting the development of English and Hawaiian linguistic minority communities as 39part of the two official language communities of the State, and to fostering full recognition 40and use of Hawaiian and English in the Hawaiian Islands, 8) estalishes the State Legislature 41is committed to cooperating with County and Municipal governments and their institutions 42and public bodies to support the development of Hawaiian and English linguistic minority 43communities, to provide services in both Hawaiian and English languages, to respect the 44constitutional guarantees of minority language educational rights and to enhance 45opportunities for all to learn both Hawaiian and English languages, 9) establishes the State 46Legislature is committed to enhancing the bilingual character of the State Capital District and 47to encouraging the business community, labor orgnaizations and voluntary organizations in 48the State to foster the recognition and use of Hawaiian and English languages, and 10) 2 2 1establishes the State Legislature recognizes the importance of preserving and enhancing the 2use of languages other than Hawaiian and English while strengthing the status and use of the 3official languages (http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/ShowFullDoc/cs/O-3.01//20090812/en and 4http://www.achtanna.ie/en.act.2003.0032.1.html adapted, see Appendix 6, p. 47); and 5 6 WHEREAS, Article 15 of the Hawai‘i State Constitution declares Hawaiian to be an 7official language “except that Hawaiian shall be required for public acts and transactions only 8as provided by law” (http://hawaii.gov/lrb/con/conart15.html , see Appendix 7, p. 128); and 9 10 WHEREAS, nearly 2,000 residents of Hawai‘i (including 3 public office holders and 11candidates at State, Municipal and Office of Hawaiian Affairs judicatories) have joined 12Hawai‘i Bilingual, whose positions are 1) Hawai‘i citizens shal by right receive public 13services in the official language of their choice, as in Canada, 2) All public service 14communications shall be published in Hawaiian, in addition to English, and 3) the Hawai‘i 15State Board of Education and the University of Hawai‘i shall adopt universal Hawaiian 16language proficiency graduation standards (http://apps.facebook.com/causes/124832/13574130?m=387a50ea 17and http://www.maoliworld.com/group/h2ohawaiibilingual , see Appendix 8, p. 130); 18 19 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Association of Hawaiian Civic 20Clubs in Convention at Makena, Maui this 7th day of November 2009, that the State 21Legislature immediately adopt a Hawai‘i Official Languages Act similar to those adopted in 22Canada and Ireland. 23 24 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Hawai‘i State Legislature 1) ensure respect 25for English and Hawaiian as the official languages of the State and ensure equality of status 26and equal rights and privileges as to their use in all governmental institutions, in particular 27with respect to their use in the Legislative proceedings, in legislative and other instruments, 28in the administration of justice, in communicating with or providing services to the public 29and in carrying out the work of State, County and municipal institutions, 2) support the 30development of Hawaiian and English linguistic minority communities and generally 31advance the equality of status and use of the Hawaiian and English languages within the 32Hawaiian Islands, 3) set out the powers, duties and functions of governmental institutions 33and publc bodies with respect to the official languages of the State, including the 34establishment of an Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages (and to define its 35functions), as well