Attitude of the French State: Discrimination in the Name of Equality
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Organisation in favour of the language rights of Basque speakers 1 Arsenal square. 64 100 Baiona ℡. / : +33 0 559594948 - [email protected] www.behatokia.org Attitude of the French State: Discrimination in the name of equality Addressed to: Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL st th Pre-sessional working group, the 21 – 25 of May 2007 DISCRIMINATION IN THE NAME OF EQUALITY "Je souhaite que leur enseignement soit correctement pris en charge.... mais je ne serai pas favorable à la Charte européenne des langues régionales. Je ne veux pas que demain un juge européen puisse décider qu’une langue régionale doit être considérée comme langue de la République au même titre que le français. [...] Les minorités n’ont pas à complexer la majorité, uniquement parce qu’elle est majoritaire” Nicolas Sarkozy. French Interior Minister 2007-03-15 "According to the principle of equality, French is the language we all share and therefore we ought to use only French. […] We should not succumb to the temptation to take the language issue too far. We all speak French here, so if anyone likes let them translate for themselves." Jean Grenet, Mayor of Bayonne, 16 Nov. 2004 Depuis plus de deux siècles, les pouvoirs politiques ont combattu les langues régionales. Certes, la république a accompli une oeuvre consideráble: la maîtrise de la langue française par le peuple, le recul des obscurantismes et de l’ignorance. Fallait-il pour cela nier les réalités culturelles et linguistiques de nos régions, au prix de la disparition de certaines d’entre elles? Jack Lang, Former Education Secretary; 2001-04-25 The Observatory of Linsguistic Rights, Behatokia, is a trust that Kontseilua, the Council of Social Organisations in support of Basque, has created. Behatokia deals with the language rights of the citizens of the Basque Country, and aims to defende that these rights are respected in the whole of the Basque Country, both in the public and private areas. 1 1. INTRODUCTION Basque is the language proper to the three territories of the French state: Lapurdi, Low Navarre and Zuberoa. However, although it is their language, the state does not acknowledge its speakers' rights. In consequence, constant violations of language rights are condoned by the law. The total lack of any legal status whatsover for a period of centuries has relegated Basque from public life and progressively circumscribed the historical language of these provinces to a diminishing range of functions. For several centuries our language has existed in a situation of diglossia, held in disregard and excluded from the uses that tend to accord a language social prestige and value. Yet another problem is the loss of speakers. Today there are 15,000 fewer speakers than ten years ago, and if the present trend continues the numbers will go on dwindling, since a large proportion of the present speakers are elderly people. Here we see the evolution of bilinguals in Lapurdi, Low Navarre and Zuberoa over the past ten years: EVOLUTION OF BILINGUALS 35,00 10,74% 30,00 8,97% 10,08% 25,00 13,92% French bilingual 20,00 8,48% 9,24% Ballanced bilingual 15,00 Basque bilingual 8,44% 8,98% 10,00 5,00 5,33% 0,00 1991 1996 2001 In this respect it is also interesting to observe the general percentages for bilinguals: 2 LANGUAGE COMPETENCE 100% 90% 80% 70% 66,90% 60% 73,56% 75,34% MONOLINGUALS 50% BILINGUALS 40% 30% 20% 33,10% 10% 26,44% 24,66% 0% 1991 1996 2001 Given these figures, it is hardly surprising that the 1996 and 2001 editions of the Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing, published by Stephen A. Wurm under the auspices of UNESCO, list Basque as a "seriously endangered language". But this is not just a spontaneous phenomenon. The state's past language policy and the non-recognition of languages such as ours have been directly responsible for the decline of Basque, and have put at risk the sociocultural survival of our language community. A deliberately distorted use of the words Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité has given rise to an alarming situation with regard to the future of our languages and others like it. 2. CONCERNING COMPLIANCE WITH RECOMMENDATIONS In its 67th, 68th and 77th sessions, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights studied the second periodical report of the state of France and on the 30th of November, 2001 made a series of recommendations in accordance with Articles 16 and 17 of the Agreement on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The state of France presented its third report on implementation of the Agreement on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on the 7th of March, 2007. Hizkuntz Eskubideen Behatokia, as an organisation for the protection of Basques' language rights, has read that report and wishes to present its own report concerning the French state's compliance with the 2001 Committee's two recommendations, and on the third report of the state of France. This report will 3 be presented at the preliminary work group meeting to be held from the 21st to the 25th of May, 2007. RECOMENDATION 25. 25. The Committee suggests that the State party review its position with regard to minorities, ensuring that minority groups have the right to exist and to be protected as such in the State party. The Committee recommends that the State party withdraw its reservation with regard to article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and that it ratify the Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities, as well as the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages. This Committee points out that the state of France has not complied with a single one of the specific recommendations that were made to it in 2001. That is an objective fact, although one which the state of France refuses to acknowledge in its own self-assessment. It has not yet revoked the clause from Article 27 of the Agreement on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; nor has it not yet signed the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities; and it has also not yet ratified the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages. Furthermore, despite three recent attempts to incorporate recognition of the existence of languages other than French into the French Constitution, none of these attempts was allowed to prosper. These are the most recently attempts: On the 26th of May, 2005 four amendments concerning language issues were presented in a debate over changes to Title XV of the Constitution, but none of the four was adopted: • The following addition to the Constitution's second article: “La langue de la République est le français, dans le respect des langues régionales qui font partie de notre patrimoine” (The language of the Republic is French, while respecting the regional languages that form part of our heritage). • The following addition to the Constitution's second article: “La langue de la République est le français, dans le respect des langues régionales qui font partie de notre patrimoine“ (The language of the Republic is French, while respecting regional languages). • The insertion of article 53-3: “La République française peut ratifier la Charte européene des langues régionaes ou minoritaires du Conseil de l’Europe” (The French Republic may ratify the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages of the Council of Europe). • The insertion of article 53-3: “Dans le respect du premier alinéa de l’article 2, la République française peut ratifier la Charte européene des langues régionales ou minoritaires du Conseil de l’Europe” (With regard to the first paragraph of article 2, the French Republic may ratify the 4 European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages of the Council of Europe). On the 13th of December, 2006 another unsuccessful attempt was made in the French Assembly to study a proposed amendment of the second article of the Constitution with the inclusion of a reference to other languages. It was proposed that the second article be reworded as follows: “La langue de la République est le français, dans le respect des autres langues de France qui font partie de notre patrimoine” (The language of the Republic is French, while respecting other languages of France that form part of our heritage). The second article of the French Constitution continues to say simply: La langue de la République est le français (The language of the Republic is French), and that fact is used as a pretext by the state for disregarding this Committee's recommendations. According to the report assessing compliance with the recommendations by the state, the fact that minorities are not subject to collective rights is not a real impediment for ratifying its position. However, while claiming it is not an impediment, there is no will to confront the real issue. How can one say that there is no prohibition at the same time as their existence is denied in agreements for the protection of international rights? What about the clause that has been added to article 27 of the International Agreement on Civil and Political Rights, for example! To speak of prohibitions, or indeed to argue that there is no such prohibition, is quite unacceptable in the twenty-first century. The absence in the state of France of a prohibition against the use of their own language by citizens who live their lives in a local language other than France plainly does not constitute a sufficient guarantee of equal rights for all citizens. Nevertheless, in the examples to be presented below, we shall see that in reality Basque-speaking citizens have repeatedly been prohibited from using their own language, in the courts among other places.