Fifth Periodical Report Presented to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in Accordance with Article 15 of the Charter
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Strasbourg, 17 November 2017 MIN-LANG (2017) PR 7 EUROPEAN CHARTER FOR REGIONAL OR MINORITY LANGUAGES Fifth periodical report presented to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in accordance with Article 15 of the Charter FINLAND THE FIFTH PERIODIC REPORT BY THE GOVERNMENT OF FINLAND ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EUROPEAN CHARTER FOR REGIONAL OR MINORITY LANGUAGES NOVEMBER 2017 2 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................................................6 PART I .................................................................................................................................................................7 1. BASIC INFORMATION ON FINNISH POPULATION AND LANGUAGES....................................................................7 1.1. Finnish population according to mother tongue..........................................................................................7 1.2. Administration of population data ..............................................................................................................9 2. SPECIAL STATUS OF THE ÅLAND ISLANDS.............................................................................................................9 3. NUMBER OF SPEAKERS OF REGIONAL OR MINORITY LANGUAGES IN FINLAND.................................................10 3.1. The numbers of persons speaking a regional or minority language..........................................................10 3.2. Swedish ......................................................................................................................................................10 3.3. Sámi languages..........................................................................................................................................11 4. NON-TERRITORIAL LANGUAGES AND NUMBER OF PERSONS USING THEM IN FINLAND ...................................12 4.1. Roma..........................................................................................................................................................12 4.2. Russian.......................................................................................................................................................13 4.3. Tatar ..........................................................................................................................................................13 4.4. Yiddish........................................................................................................................................................14 4.5. Karelian......................................................................................................................................................14 4.6. Estonian .....................................................................................................................................................15 4.7. Sign language ............................................................................................................................................16 5. GOVERNMENT PROGRAMME, STRATEGIES, STUDIES, REPORTS AND INVESTIGATIONS ...................................18 5.1. Government Programme ...........................................................................................................................18 5.2. Key project on knowledge and education..................................................................................................18 5.3. National Action Plan on Fundamental and Human Rights 2017–2019......................................................19 5.4. Strategy for the National Languages of Finland and its follow-up ............................................................19 5.5. Action Plan for the Strategy for the National Languages of Finland .........................................................21 5.6. Report on the implementation of language legislation .............................................................................22 5.7. Language Barometer 2016 ........................................................................................................................23 5.8. Sámi Barometer 2016 ................................................................................................................................24 5.9. Study on the implementation of the constitutional linguistic rights of the Roma .....................................25 6. NATIONAL LEGISLATION ....................................................................................................................................26 6.1. Amendments to the Language Act ............................................................................................................26 6.2. Sámi Language Act reform ........................................................................................................................27 6.3. The new Non-discrimination Act and discrimination monitoring system ..................................................27 6.4. Revision of the Act on the Sámi Parliament...............................................................................................28 6.5. Amendment to the Basic Education Act regarding pre-primary education ...............................................29 7. OVERSIGHT OF THE REALISATION OF LINGUISTIC FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS .......................................................29 7.1. Ex-ante and ex-post supervision ................................................................................................................29 7.2. Chancellor of Justice of the Government ...................................................................................................29 7.3. Parliamentary Ombudsman.......................................................................................................................30 7.4. Non-Discrimination Ombudsman and National Non-Discrimination and Equality Tribunal......................33 8. STRUCTURES PROMOTING LINGUISTIC RIGHTS .................................................................................................33 8.1. Advisory Board on Language Affairs..........................................................................................................33 8.2. Sámi Language Council of the Sámi Parliament ........................................................................................34 8.3. National languages network......................................................................................................................34 8.4. National languages network of bilingual municipalities............................................................................34 8.5. Finnish Network for Language Education Policies .....................................................................................35 8.6. Institute for the Languages of Finland.......................................................................................................35 8.7. National Human Rights Institution ............................................................................................................35 8.8. Government Network of contact persons for fundamental rights and human rights ...............................36 9. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS' RECOMMENDATIONS................................................36 9.1. Communication about the recommendations ...........................................................................................36 9.2. Recommendation – policy and funding for developing education in the Sámi language..........................37 9.3. Recommendation - protecting Inari and Skolt Sámi by means of language nest activities ......................38 9.4. Recommendation - social welfare and health care services in Swedish and Sámi.....................................38 Protection of linguistic rights in services ........................................................................................................................39 Linguistic rights in the reform of the public social welfare and health care service structure.......................................39 Programme to address child and family services ...........................................................................................................40 3 9.5. Recommendation - the teaching of Roma .................................................................................................41 9.6. Recommendation - awareness of regional or minority languages ............................................................42 Ministry of Justice as a promoter of linguistic rights ......................................................................................................42 Human rights in the curricula .........................................................................................................................................42 Tasks of the Finnish Broadcasting Company...................................................................................................................43 Press subsidies................................................................................................................................................................43 Training programme for minority youth on using media for exerting influence............................................................43 Roma portal ....................................................................................................................................................................44