European Charter for Regional Or Minority Languages APPLICATION
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Strasbourg, 20 September 2001 ECRML (2001)1 European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages APPLICATION OF THE CHARTER IN THE NETHERLANDS 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 report to the Committee of Ministers on its evaluation of compliance by a Party with its undertakings, to examine the real situation of the regional or minority languages in the State and, where appropriate, to encourage the Party to gradually reach a higher level of commitment. To facilitate this task, the Committee of Ministers adopted, in accordance with Article 15.1, an outline for the initial periodical report that a Party is required to submit to the Secretary General. The report should be made public by the State. 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 initial 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, so as to attempt to obtain a just and fair overview of the real language situation. After a preliminary examination of an initial periodical report, the Committee submits, if necessary, a number of questions to each Party to procure supplementary information from the authorities on matters it considers 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. This information-gathering process is designed to enable the Committee to better evaluate the application of the Charter in the State concerned. 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 could decide to address to one or more Parties as may be required. 2 CONTENTS A. Report of the Committee of Experts on the application of the Charter in the Netherlands ………………………………. 5 Chapter I: Background information ………………… 7 Chapter II: The Committee’s evaluation in respect of Part II and Part III of the Charter ……….. 10 Chapter III: Findings of the Committee ………………. 27 Appendix I: Instrument of Acceptance ………………. 29 Appendix II: Comments of the Dutch authorities ……. 31 B. Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the application of the Charter in the 33 Netherlands ……………………………………………………. 3 Strasbourg, 9 February 2001 European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages A. Report of the Committee of Experts on the application of the Charter presented to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in accordance with Article 16 of the Charter THE NETHERLANDS CONTENTS Chapter 1 Background information 1.1 The work of the Committee of Experts 1.2 Presentation of the regional or minority language situation in the Netherlands 1.3 Particular issues arising in the evaluation of the application of the Charter in the Netherlands Chapter 2 The Committee’s evaluation in respect of Part II and Part III of the Charter 2.1 The evaluation in respect of Part II of the Charter 2.2 The evaluation in respect of Part III of the Charter Chapter 3 Findings Appendix I: Instrument of Acceptance Appendix II: Comments of the Dutch authorities 6 Chapter 1 Background information 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 deposited its instrument of acceptance 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. In accordance with Article 15.1 of the Charter, the Netherlands presented its initial periodical report to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in January 1999. It should be noted that the Dutch initial periodical report was not prepared in accordance with the outline for periodical reports adopted by the Committee of Ministers. The reason for this is that the Dutch authorities had already prepared a report on the situation of the Frisian language before the Committee of Ministers adopted the outline. The Committee of Experts decided to accept the report in its existing form but requested further information on the situation of the languages covered by Part II of the Charter. The Dutch authorities published their initial periodical report in accordance with the requirement in Article 15.2, by making it available through the Ministry of the Interior and by sending a copy of the report to the representatives of the Frisian language. Three Addenda to this report were sent to the Committee. Addendum 3 contains information on the Lower Saxon, Limburger, Roma and Sinti and Yiddish languages. The Committee has not been informed whether the three Addenda have been made public by the authorities in the same way as the initial periodical report, but it noted that the representatives of the associations it met in the Netherlands during its on-the-spot visit had received a copy of the reports prior to the meetings. 3. The present report was adopted by the Committee of Experts on 7 February 2001. 1.1 The work of the Committee of Experts 4. Taking into consideration the unusual situation of the presentation of the Dutch report, the Committee, after its preliminary examination of the report, submitted a questionnaire to the authorities of the Netherlands. The answers provided by the latter made good the lack of elements required in the original report. A delegation of the Committee of Experts then undertook an “on-the-spot visit” to the Netherlands. During this visit, the delegation invited representatives of all the Part II languages and met representatives of Frisian, Lower Saxon, Limburger and Yiddish. The representatives of the Roma and Sinti languages did not attend the meeting with the Committee. The delegation also met the provincial authorities of Friesland and other representatives of the Frisian language, and finally consulted with the Dutch central authorities. On the basis of the information gathered from the initial periodical report, the questionnaires and the “on-the-spot visit”, and from correspondence with various groups representing the Frisian-speakers, the Committee of Experts was able to prepare its evaluation of the application of the Charter in the Netherlands. 7 5. The Committee has established a list of proposals for the preparation of recommendations of the Committee of Ministers to the Netherlands, as required by Article 16.4 of the Charter (see Chapter 3.2 of this report). Furthermore, where necessary, the Committee has made in the body of the report more detailed observations which it encourages the authorities of the Netherlands to take into consideration when developing their policy with regard to regional or minority languages. 6. This report is based on the political and legal situation at the time when the Charter was accepted by the Netherlands and at the time when the latter presented its initial periodical report to the Council of Europe. It is based on the information that the Committee was able to obtain through the sources mentioned above. 1.2. Presentation of the regional or minority language situation in the Kingdom of the Netherlands 7. Frisian is the second official language in the Province of Friesland. The existing Covenants on the Frisian Language and Culture play a major part in the preservation and development of Frisian as a regional or minority language in the province of Friesland. These Covenants are agreements between the provincial government and the State and have been implemented where necessary by specific laws. The Covenants are concluded periodically between the Province of Friesland and the central government. They set the objectives and policies of the two parties with regard to Frisian language and culture. The first Covenant was concluded in 1989, the second in 1993 and the third one is currently under preparation. According to the provisions of the 1993 Covenant, the State Secretary of Home Affairs in the Netherlands is required to present a detailed report to Parliament on the implementation of the Covenant indicating the measures that have been taken with regard to the Frisian language.