It is “the human right of every individual to speak his or her own language”, according to the President of CIEMEN, who presented the case to the United Nations in Geneva yesterday (Wednesday 17th September), who urged UN member states to adopt a United Nations Declaration of Linguistic Rights

Aureli Argemí, who in addition to being the President of CIEMEN is also a member of the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages (EBLUL), said:

“Languages do not have rights; but individuals do have linguistic rights. It is for this reason that we commonly distinguish between languages and cultures".

Argemí went on to say that linguistic diversity needed to be protected within the framework of human rights and not within that of cultural rights. His presentation to the ninth session of the UN Human Rights Council is part of a long campaign that began in 1996 that saw 61 NGOs, 41 International PEN centres and 40 specialists from around the world approving a Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights (DUDL) in Barcelona.

In Geneva yesterday Argemí urged Ambassadors to begin preparing a Convention, a draft example of which was submitted to the UN by CIEMEN for consideration on June 17th 2008.

The EFAy support the idea of a UN Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights (DUDL) and look forward to its future adoption.

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