Language Research

European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages signed on November 5, 1992, ratified on September 16, 1998 and enacted on January 1, 1999.

Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities signed on May 11, 1995, ratified on September 10, 1997 and enacted on February 1, 1998.

Updated (April 2004)

Germany has concluded the Bonn-Copenhagen Erklärungen of 1955 and the Kieler Erklärung über die Rechte der Mindernheiten of 1949 (Kiel Declaration on the Protection of National Minorities) with Denmark. Both declarations oblige Germany and Denmark to promote the Danish minority in Germany.

Also, Germany and the Netherlands have mutually recognized the Frisian language as a minority language in the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (the Netherlands in 1996; Germany in 1998).

Source: Minority-language Related Broadcasting and Legislation in the OSCE, Program in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP), Center for Socio-Legal Studies, Wolfson College, Oxford University & Institute for Information Law (IViR) (http://www.ivir.nl/index-english.html), Universiteit van Amsterdam (Study commissioned by the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities), April 2003, edited by T. McGonagle (IViR), B. Davis Noll & M. Price (PCMLP), http://www.ivir.nl/publications/mcgonagle/Minority-language%20broadcasting.pdf

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