U.S. English Foundation Research
FRANCE
Language Research
7. International treaties: Did the country ratify any international treaty dealing with the protection of minorities?
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages was signed on May 7, 1999 and it has not yet been ratified.
This document specifically involves 39 paragraphs in the fields of education, the administration authorities and public services, the media, cultural activities and equipments, economic and social life and cross-border exchanges. The Charter contains 95 paragraphs. According to the government, the ratification will be fulfilled next year.
Updated (April 2001)
The debate about non-ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages has at least resulted in fruitful consequences. Despite the lack of their recognition in the French Constitution languages other than French are presented at schools.
The main goal is to establish the recognition of the diversity of cultural identities, to guarantee the instructions in lesser-used languages (through parental consent), to create public centers where these languages shall be taught and to train teachers. Languages such as Occitan, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Alsatian or Corsican will thus be able to be a part of the public educational service.
Updated (June 2006)
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT INTERGROUP DEMANDS THAT FRANCE RATIFY THE EUROPEAN CHARTER AND THE FRAMEWORK CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES
The European Parliament Intergroup for Traditional Minorities, Constitutional Regions and Regional Languages met in Strasbourg with representatives from EBLUL France, comprising Bretons, Alsacians, and Occitans, and the Association of the French Regions on May 24, 2006. Following the meeting, the Intergroup President, Csaba Tabajdi, issued a Declaration demanding that France ratify the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM).
The declaration states that France out of nearly all the states in Europe has neither signed nor ratified the FCNM as well as it has still not ratified the ECRML. Moreover, France has issued reservations on Article 27 of the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and on Article 30 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Child. Another problem is that only French profits from official recognition even though there are various languages on the territory. The cultures and languages known as regional are excluded from the public life by legislation, which means that the number of minority-language speakers is decreasing1. After decades of eradication, the teaching of these languages remains highly marginal and their place in media (particularly the radio and television) is extremely reduced. Therefore, the Declaration calls on France to "fully recognize the right to the existence of the citizens and peoples which make it up in their specificity, in particular through a system of education, media and public space allowing the normal expression of their languages and cultures".
Furthermore, Mr. Tabajdi calls for the EU member states to intervene to help the languages on the French territory that are now facing endangerment because of the current state policies. The President also challenges the Member States and the European Union over the urgency of the measures to be taken and on their duty to intervene, taking into account serious problems these languages have in France.
Source: EBLUL press releases, May 25, 2006 http://www.eblul.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=93&Itemid=37〈=en
- The Breton language, for example, is facing severe endangerment. Of the estimated 270,000 speakers, most of them are over 65 years old, while those learning Breton at school comprise only 2% of the school going population in Brittany. It means that the older speakers are not being replaced enough to prevent quite rapid decline.
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Updated (May 2007)
FRANCE STILL FAILS TO IMPLEMENT THE UN RECOMMENDATIONS
In November 2001, EBLUL and the NGO "Pour Que Vivent Nos Langues" (Promoting our Languages) submitted a short report on regional language rights in France to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The UN Committee made observations that amongst others, asked France to:
- Acknowledge minority groups and their right to exist;
- Ratify the Council of Europe's Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM) and Charter on Regional or Minority languages (ECRML);
- Step up its efforts to preserve regional and minority languages and cultures; and
- To take steps to improve the teaching of these languages.
The Committee also asked the French state to circulate these observations widely at all levels of state and to involve non-governmental organizations in the preparation of its third periodical report.
At present - six years later, France has not yet implemented any part if the recommendations.
Concerning this issue, EBLUL-France President, Tangi Louarn, said in the recently published report: "At present, six years later, it is clear that very few of these observations have been applied: the state has not issued any information about its services concerning the Committee's observations; the state has not ratified the ECRML and France is one of the three last states (out of 47) within the Council of Europe not to have signed the FCNM".
He continued that the state still does not recognize any minority group or people on its territory. The dogma of the "unity" of the French people (as the constitutional court says) still prevails with a restrictive implementation - the use of these languages is ostracized in education and the media in increasingly virulent forms. Moreover, demands by the populations involved intensify as they face the increasing risk of the complete disappearance of their languages and cultures.
The President of EBLUL-France concluded: "To summarize, the treatment of our 2001 report reflects the disregard shown by the French state both for the populations concerned and international organizations such as the UN. In addition, this can be supported with specific examples of discrimination and the negation of rights suffered by the populations concerned (annexed to our report), and the keenness with which the state opposes any action which these populations and their elected representatives attempt to take in order to defend their languages and cultures and to guarantee their survival and development."
The Basque organization Behatokia has also submitted a report to the Committee. Underlining the effects of French state policy against their regional languages, it notes that Basque has lost 15,000 speakers over the last ten years due to both a decline in Basque-French bilinguals and bilingualism generally.
Source: Eurolang News, May 22, 2007 by Davyth Hicks http://www.eurolang.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2883&Itemid=1&lang=en
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Updated (January 2008)
“THERE IS NEVER A GOOD TIME FOR RATIFICATION OF THE ECRML”
Less than a quarter of the Deputies to the French National Assembly (136 of 577) supported the constitutional amendments1, proposed by Marylise Lebranchu (French Socialist Party) and Marc Le Fur (Union for a Popular Movement), which are essential for France to ratify the ECRML. Exactly as in December 2006 when Mr. Le Fur proposed modifying Article 2 of the Constitution, which guarantees, “respect for regional languages, which are part of our heritage”, the amendments were rejected. “There is never a good time”, say the Deputies, to discuss French ratification of the Charter.
After the vote EBLUL France and the Cultural Council of Brittany issued, among others, the following statement: “...(S)ome have expressed doubts about the value of any protection of regional languages by the Constitution. That attitude still tends to say that there would be only one language, French, and culture, worthy of recognition in the Constitution, thereby denying the diversity of the Republic is in violation of the principle of equal dignity for all languages”.
They also noted that the Government couldn't treat the languages of millions of citizens supported by a quarter of all the Deputies with contempt.
In the statement they followed by saying that Minister of Justice, Rachida Dati, promised, on behalf of the President, a debate on regional languages in the National Assembly in the spring. Therefore, minority representatives expect that this issue, which affects the cultural heritage of humanity, people's identity and human rights, be finally treated with the seriousness required. According to them, the French Republic should officially recognize the linguistic diversity in its territories since only this recognition will lead to policies that will ensure the future of languages that are currently endangered and excluded from social life.
Source: Eurolang News, January 21, 2008 by Davyth Hicks http://www.eurolang.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3017&Itemid=1&lang=en
- For France to ratify the ECRML is important to modify Article 2 of the French Constitution, which establishes that “the language of the Republic is French”, as the Constitutional Council of France declared that the implementation of the Charter would be unconstitutional and incompatible with this Article.
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