NL 3Rd Evaluation Report Public
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Strasbourg, 9 July 2008 ECRML (2008) 3 EUROPEAN CHARTER FOR REGIONAL OR MINORITY LANGUAGES APPLICATION OF THE CHARTER IN THE NETHERLANDS 3rd monitoring cycle A. Report of the Committee of Experts on the Charter B. Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the application of the Charter by the Netherlands The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages provides for a control mechanism to evaluate how the Charter is applied in a State Party with a view to, where necessary, making Recommendations for improvements in its legislation, policy and practices. The central element of this procedure is the Committee of Experts, established in accordance with Article 17 of the Charter. Its principal purpose is to examine the real situation of the regional or minority languages in the State, to report to the Committee of Ministers on its evaluation of compliance by a Party with its undertakings, and, where appropriate, to encourage the Party to gradually reach a higher level of commitment. To facilitate this task, the Committee of Ministers has adopted, in accordance with Article 15.1, an outline for the periodical reports that a Party is required to submit to the Secretary General. The report shall be made public by the government concerned. This outline requires the State to give an account of the concrete application of the Charter, the general policy for the languages protected under its Part II and in more precise terms all measures that have been taken in application of the provisions chosen for each language protected under Part III of the Charter. The Committee‘s first task is therefore to examine the information contained in the periodical report for all the relevant regional or minority languages on the territory of the State concerned. The Committee‘s role is to evaluate the existing legal acts, regulations and real practice applied in each State for its regional or minority languages. It has established its working methods accordingly. The Committee gathers information from the respective authorities and from independent sources within the State, with a view to obtaining a just and fair overview of the real language situation. After a preliminary examination of a periodical report, the Committee submits, if necessary, a number of questions to the Party concerned on matters it considers unclear or insufficiently developed in the report itself. This written procedure is usually followed up by an —on-the-spot" visit of a delegation of the Committee to the respective State. During this visit the delegation meets bodies and associations whose work is closely related to the use of the relevant languages, and consults the authorities on matters that have been brought to its attention. Having concluded this process, the Committee of Experts adopts its own report. This report is submitted to the Committee of Ministers, together with suggestions for recommendations that the latter may decide to address to the State Party. 2 CONTENTS A. Report of the Committee of Experts on the application of the Charter in the Netherlands ........................................................................................................................4 Chapter 1 - Background information ...................................................................................................4 1.1 Introductory remarks.............................................................................................4 1.2 The work of the Committee of Experts.................................................................4 1.3. General and specific issues arising from the evaluation of the periodical report ....................................................................................................................5 Chapter 2 - Presentation of the regional or minority language situation in the Netherlands: an up- date ......................................................................................................................................6 2.1. Territorial languages in the Netherlands ..............................................................6 2.2. Non-territorial languages in the Netherlands........................................................6 Chapter 3 - The Committee of Experts‘ evaluation of Parts II and III of the Charter ..........................7 3.1. The Committee of Experts‘ evaluation in respect of Part II of the Charter...........7 3.2. The Committee of Experts‘ evaluation of the application of Part III of the Charter: Frisian...................................................................................................15 Chapter 4 - Conclusions....................................................................................................................26 4.1 Conclusions of the Committee of Experts on how the Dutch authorities reacted to the recommendations of the Committee of Ministers........................26 4.2. Findings of the Committee of Experts in the context of the third monitoring round ..................................................................................................................27 Appendix I: Instrument of Acceptance ..............................................................................................29 Appendix II: Comments by the Dutch authorities..............................................................................31 B. Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the application of the Charter by the Netherlands ..............................................................32 3 A. Report of the Committee of Experts on the application of the Charter in the Netherlands adopted by the Committee of Experts on 27 November 2007 and presented to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in accordance with Article 16 of the Charter Chapter 1 - Background information 1.1 Introductory remarks 1. The Kingdom of the Netherlands signed the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (hereafter referred to as —the Charter“) on 5 November 1992 and accepted it on 2 May 1996. On 19 March 1997, a supplementary declaration was submitted in a Note Verbale to the Council of Europe, by the Permanent Representation of the Netherlands (attached in Appendix I). The Charter entered into force for the Netherlands on 1 March 1998. The Dutch authorities published the text of the Charter in the Dutch Treaty Series in 1993, No. 1 (in English and French) and No. 199 (in the Dutch language). 2. Article 15.1 of the Charter requires States Parties to submit three-yearly reports in a form prescribed by the Committee of Ministers 1. The Dutch authorities presented their 3rd periodical report to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe on 4 September 2007. 3. In its 2nd evaluation report on the Netherlands (ECRML (2004) 8), the Committee of Experts of the Charter (hereafter referred to as —the Committee of Experts“) outlined particular areas where policies, legislation and practice could be improved. The Committee of Ministers took note of the report presented by the Committee of Experts and adopted recommendations (RecChL (2004) 7), which were addressed to the Dutch authorities. 1.2 The work of the Committee of Experts 4. The 3rd evaluation report is based on the information the Committee of Experts obtained through the 3rd periodical report of the Netherlands and through meetings held with representatives of the speakers of the regional or minority languages and the Dutch authorities during the on-the-spot visit, which took place from 5 to 7 September 2007. The Committee of Experts received several comments from bodies and associations legally established in the Netherlands, submitted pursuant to Article 16.2 of the Charter. 5. The present report focuses on the issues raised and on the related observations made by the Committee of Experts in its 2 nd evaluation report as well as on measures taken by the Dutch authorities to respond to the findings of the Committee of Experts and to the recommendations addressed to the Dutch Government by the Committee of Ministers. This report also highlights new issues, which the Committee of Experts considers to be of particular importance in the context of this 3rd monitoring cycle. 6. The Committee of Experts has in the present report presented detailed observations which the Dutch authorities are urged to take into account when developing their policies on regional or minority languages. On the basis of these detailed observations, the Committee of Experts has also proposed recommendations to the Committee of Ministers to be addressed to the Government of the Netherlands, as provided in Article 16.4 of the Charter. The present report reflects the policies, legislation and practice prevailing at the time of the on-the-spot visit. Any changes after that time will be taken into account in the next report of the Committee of Experts concerning the Netherlands. 7. The present report was adopted by the Committee of Experts on 27 November 2007. 1 MIN-LANG (2002) 1, Outline for three-yearly periodical reports as adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. 4 1.3. General and specific issues arising from the evaluation of the periodical report 8. The Netherlands submitted their 3rd periodical report with a delay of 15 months, which has severely hampered the monitoring process and in particular the organization of the on-the-spot visit. The Committee of Experts regrets this delay and considers it detrimental to the good functioning of the Charter system,