Dossier
no. 13 – The Protection of Minority Languages in the Czech Republic
and in Slovakia, a Requirement for EU-Accession
Introduction
The dissolution of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia (or Slovak Republic) has necessarily brought changes in the demographic structure of both countries: the Slovak people has now become a true majority, but there still are a number of language minorities who need to be protected. Next, we will get an insight of the historical context that has led to the present circumstances, i.e. the relationship between the Czech majority and the non-Czech minorities, including the Slovaks; then we will analyse the present demographic aspects and language-related legislation in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia; and, finally, we will see how the European Commission evaluates this legislation and its implementation.
But before that, a clarifying explanation must be made about the difficulty of being precise in the terminology used when referring to minorities, as all terms contain a very broad and shade-rich concept and are, nonetheless, very often used as synonyms. It must be said that there is no connotation-free term: nation, ethnic group, minority, community…, nationality, ethnicity, citizenship…, they all have different meanings and should be carefully used and extensively analysed. However, since such a discussion is not the object of a short paper like this, and for the sake of discourse fluency, they will be interchanged.
1. Historical background
The history of Czechoslovakia prior to its split into today’s Czech Republic and Slovakia can be roughly divided into three periods: the post-World War I era –usually referred to as the interwar era–, the short World War II interruption and the Communist period.
1.1. Interwar period
The interwar era starts with the realisation of the project of uniting the Czech and the Slovak peoples in one state, established on October 28, 1918. The union was mainly based on the great similarity between the Czech and the Slovak languages, between which almost total interintelligibility existed[1], and it had been agreed that Slovakia would be granted a wide autonomy. However, Czechoslovakia’s Constitution, adopted on February 29, 1920, did not comply with that promise and the state’s political structure was centralised in Prague. Its territory encompassed disparate parts of the old Hapsburg Empire: the historical Bohemian Kingdom (the Czech Lands, i.e. Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia) plus Slovakia and Ruthenia, which meant that, besides the Czechs and the Slovaks, the population also included mainly three minorities: Sudeten Germans (over three million, about 23% of the population), Hungarians (about 750,000) and Ruthenians; Jewish and Polish minorities were also numerous, and the Roma were not accounted as a national minority. In spite of the historical precedents that allowed the creation of the new state, the Czechoslovak Republic had “a strongly heterogeneous ethnic structure”[2] , it was actually a blend of several ethnic groups and territories with different historical, political, and economic traditions.
The legal status of all these national minorities was defined in the law since the very beginning of Czechoslovakia’s existence. Right after World War I, their status was based on international peace treaties with allied powers, particularly the Treaty of Saint-Germain (1919). The “protection of national, religious and racial minorities” was enshrined in the Constitution of 1920 (Section VI) and in the Act on Language Rights (1920)[3]. Although this act made “the Czechoslovak language[4][…] the state official language of the Republic”, the Constitution granted members of minority groups the right to be educated in their own language (“in towns and districts in which there lives a considerable fraction [at least 20%[5]] of Czechoslovak citizens speaking a language other than Czechoslovak”)[6]; it also granted them full freedom to use their language in everyday life and in dealings with authorities[7] . In comparison to conditions in the rest of Central and Eastern Europe, the interwar period (1918-1938) provided unique opportunities for minorities in Czechoslovakia to organise themselves politically, economically and culturally.[8]
1.2 World War II
Notwithstanding constitutional protection, centralisation of political power proved inadequate for a multinational state and the problem of dissatisfied nationalities lingered. However, the outbreak of World War II changed the political and demographic balance. Hitler occupied Sudetenland and Slovakia attained independence: Czechoslovakia disintegrated. The Polish minority and the secessionist Sudeten Germans –the biggest minority– “achieved the aim of unification with their matrix countries”[9]. When the war ended and the state was reunified with its pre-1938 borders, the population was sharply reduced for ethnic reasons: the Jews had been virtually exterminated, and nearly all Sudeten Germans (more than 2.5 million, one fifth of the population) and a portion of Hungarians were accused of collaborating with the nazis and were expelled. Although a resettling of the Hungarian population was envisaged, by 1946 only 160,000 Hungarians had been resettled. The territory was also altered: Ruthenia (Carpathian Ukraine) became a part of the USSR and Czechoslovakia lost most of its Ukrainian population. During World War II most Czech Roma were exterminated by the nazis and the vast majority (95%) of the Roma in today’s Czech Republic are descendants of post-war immigrants from Slovakia.
1.3 Comunist period
The post-World War II period starts in May 1945, with the proclamation of the Czechoslovak Republic, which officially meant the legal continuity of the state established in 1918, but the situation was then totally different, as the country found itself within the Soviet sphere of influence. The communists took over in 1948 by means of a coup d’état and in the following years they integrated Czechoslovakia into the Communist Block. Throughout the period until 1992, two constitutions were adopted (1948 and 1960), and several amendments were subsequently introduced, most significantly in 1968: Slovakia’s relative degree of autonomy granted by the Constitution of 1948 was severely limited by the Constitution of 1960 and the Prague Spring events of 1968 precipitated a constitutional reform that turned Czechoslovakia into a federal state of “two equal fraternal nations”[10], thereby temporarily easing the Slovaks’ yearning for autonomy. The amendments of 1968 also responded to the calls for reform from ethnic minorities; Constitutional Act 144/1968 defined the status of ethnic groups and acknowledged the full political and cultural rights of legally recognised minorities (Hungarians, Poles and Ukrainians/Ruthenians, plus Germans, who were acknowledged once again). Nevertheless, its implementation did not fulfil the expectations of the nationalities[11], since they were not represented in political affairs. The turn of a multiparty system into the rule of the Communist Party (KSC) undermined the ethnic minorities’ political leverage. According to the Constitution and the act on the status of national minorities, Czechoslovakia comprised two nations, in terms of ethnicity (národ, i.e. Czechs and Slovaks), and four ethnic groups (národnost, i.e. Hungarians, Poles, Ukrainians/Ruthenians and Germans). As the Czech Republic’s Government has stated, “this tradition of double ethnicity is still alive in the Czech Republic of today despite the fact that the Czech law, which honours civil principles, does not recognize the term of state-forming (ethnic) nation. The term nation is generally associated with language, culture and kinship rather than a state.”[12]
In 1984, the demographic distribution of minority groups was as follows: 590,000 Hungarians, 71,000 Poles and 48,000 Ukrainians; Jews were a very small group (5,000 in 1975, according to some estimates); as for Germans, the few that escaped deportation (about 165,000) were scattered along the western border of Sudetenland and since the beginning of the 1960’s and throughout the 70’s they were increasingly assimilated into the Czech majority or they emigrated to the west. They could not hold Czechoslovak citizenship until 1953 and their legal status as an ethnic minority was recognised in 1968 for the first time since World War II. Hungarians concentrated in southern and eastern Slovakia, especially in the border regions, and made up 11% of Slovakia’s population, although 20% lived in exclusively Hungarian settlements. The Czechoslovak government carried out an anti-Hungarian policy; for instance, the use of Hungarian in official business was forbidden after the Soviet occupation of 1968. Poles were concentrated in the northern border region and the few Ukrainians that were left after the cession of Ruthenia to the USSR were clustered in North-east Slovakia; they also suffered the government’s anti-minority policies. As regards the issue of the Roma, the communist criteria did not acknowledge them as a nationality, but as “groups of inhabitants”[13]. The Constitutional Act of 1968 did not include them and their integration in society was very difficult. In 1980, estimates of their population ranged from 250,000 to 400,000.
The beginning of the end of state communism in Czechoslovakia was precipitated by the peaceful Velvet Revolution of 1989, since it allowed a transition to democracy and the subsequent dissolution of the federation. The dualism of the Czech and the Slovak identities had been increased by the fact that the Czech and Slovak languages were only taught in their respective territories; in April 1990, after fierce discussions, the country was renamed as Czech and Slovak Federative Republic and in March 1991 a new constitution was drafted, but it did not solve the disagreements between both counterparts. Eventually, in July 1992 Slovakia declared itself a sovereign state, meaning that its laws took precedence over those of the federal government, and in November that year the federal parliament voted to dissolve the country officially on December 31, despite polls indicating that the majority of citizens opposed the split. Finally, on January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia was replaced by two independent states: Slovakia and the Czech Republic.[14] The new ethnic composition that thereby arose, along with the protection of minorities, was and still is a challenge for both countries. The Czech Republic has to deal with a relatively small proportion of minorities, above all Slovaks and the Roma, and Slovakia with a much more significant presence of minorities, especially a very high proportion of Hungarians and Roma.
2. The Czech Republic
2.1. Demographic aspects
According to the public census of March 1, 2001[15], the Czech Republic has 10,294,822 inhabitants. As opposed to former Czechoslovakia, the overall composition of the Czech Republic is highly homogeneous, since the Czechs constitute nearly the total population (94.1%) and minorities are relatively small and dispersed. In comparison with the results of 1991[16] data on persons who belong to the most numerous minorities have now decreased. This could be due to different reasons: the confusion between “ethnicity” and “citizenship”, the homogeneous character of the Czech Republic’s society, integration or assimilation into the Czech nationality, etc. It should be noted that the results of the 2001 census are very recent and they still need to be completely evaluated; in fact, as with previous censuses, the representatives of national minorities presume that the figures of their groups are underestimated.
|
National
identity |
Absolute number (1991) |
Absolute number (2001) |
Percentage (1991) |
Percentage (2001) |
Mother tongue (1991) |
Mother tongue (2001) |
Czech (total) |
8.363.768 9.770.527 |
9.297.735 9.690.259 |
81,2% 94,8% |
90,3% 94,1% |
- 95,8% |
- 94,0% |
| Slovak |
314.877 |
194.008 |
3,1%
|
1,9% |
2,3%
|
2,0% |
| Polish |
59.383
|
52.095
|
0,6%
|
0,5%
|
0,5%
|
0,5%
|
| German |
48.556 |
39.238 |
0,5%
|
0,4%
|
0,4%
|
0,4%
|
| Ukrainian |
8.220 |
22.189 |
0,1%
|
0,2%
|
0,1%
|
-
|
| Vietnamese |
421 |
17.586 |
(<0,1%)
|
0,2%
|
- |
-
|
| Hungaria |
19.932
|
14.737
|
0,2%
|
0,1%
|
0,2%
|
-
|
| Russian |
5.062 |
12.418 |
0,1%
|
0,1%
|
-
|
0,2%
|
| Romani |
32.903 |
11.859 |
0,3%
|
0,1%
|
0,2%
|
0,2%
|
| Other[17] |
20.317
|
53.692 |
0,2%
|
0,5%
|
0,2%
|
0,9%
|
| Unknown |
22.017
|
186.741
|
0,2%
|
1,8%
|
0,3%
|
0,9%
|
| TOTAL |
10.302.215 |
10.294.822 |
100,0% |
100,0% |
100,0% |
99,1% |
The Czech group actually includes three varieties or separate identities: Bohemian (Czech), Moravian and Silesian, since they speak different dialects of the Czech language. In 1991, a significant portion of the total population declared themselves as Moravian (13.2%) or Silesian (0.4%); it was the first time in the history of the Czech Lands that Moravian and Silesian were accounted as national identities, but the Czech legislation on minority rights does not consider them as such. The Government of the Czech Republic attributed the high figures of 1991 to the “search of identity” in some areas during the process of social transformation following the change of regime in November 1989[18]; in 2001 they were much lower. However, there are some activists in Moravia and Silesia who advocate a new “national liberation movement”.[19]
The Slovaks are the largest minority, although they are relatively recent immigrants. The most significant mass of Slovaks came after World War II to replace evacuated Germans and the peak was reached in 1980 (359,370). The decrease of the Slovak population in the 1991 and 2001 censuses is due to the fact that second or third generation Slovaks did not feel as such any more and reported as Czechs, or else that some Roma who selected Slovak ethnicity in 1980 might have reported as Czechs or Roma. In fact, a large proportion of Slovaks (possibly more than 100,000) are actually Romani, but they might have reported as Slovaks following the habit of being included in this group in previous censuses. As for the increasing assimilation of Slovaks into the Czech identity, it may be due to the similarity of their languages, to the better economic conditions in the Czech Lands and to the lack of Slovak schools. In 1995, the only Slovak primary school in the Czech Republic had approximately 100 pupils.[20] Moreover, the Slovak population is dispersed throughout the entire Czech Republic. Unofficial estimates claim that there are half a million Slovaks, but only about 30-40% actually use the Slovak language.[21]
The Roma appear in ninth position, but this is only due to the fact that, given their social exclusion, the majority of them prefer not to state their real ethnicity. Official records kept by local authorities before 1989 show that the Romani community in the Czech Republic had approximately 200,000 members (about 1.9% of the population). Other estimates on the basis of the mother tongue data indicate that the Roma community has about 72,000 members. The vast majority (95%) are post-war immigrants from Slovakia, they are quite dispersed in the territory and, although Romani is their first language, it is presumed that it is used by half of the population. It is recently starting to be replaced by Czech and Slovak. This process is motivated by both exogenous and endogenous reasons, as some leaders prefer assimilation. Besides, a standard of the Romani language has not yet been codified. As for the main historical minorities –Poles, Germans, Hungarians and Ukrainians/Ruthenians–, they are gradually decreasing and being assimilated.
2.2. Language-related legislation
The Constitution of the Czech Republic was adopted on December 16, 1992, and entered into force on January 1, 1993. Although the status of Czech as the “state” or “official” language is not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, it is implicit in Act No. 40/1993, which regulates the “Acquisition and Loss of Citizenship of the Czech Republic” and stipulates the knowledge of the Czech language as a condition for granting citizenship[22]. Needless to say, there is no relevant mention on other languages. Besides the Constitution[23], the basic protection of national minorities by means of national legislation is determined by the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms of 1991 and the Act on the Rights of Members of National Minorities of 2001.
The Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms of 1991 superseded the Constitutional Act on the Status of National Minorities of 1968, and two years later, after the break-up of the Czechoslovak federation, the Czech Republic promulgated it as Act No. 2/1993, pursuant to Article 3 of the Constitution[24]. Chapter III of the Charter (“Rights of national and ethnic minorities”) does not specify the groups that are to be recognised and neither does it define the means by which those rights can be realised; Art. 25 states that “detailed provisions […] shall be set by law”. According to this article, national and ethnic minorities are granted the right “(1) […] to disseminate and receive information in their language […], (2) (a) the right to education in their language [and] (b) the right to use their language in official contact”. However, the Charter does not define the difference between “national” and “ethnic” minorities. The definition was pointed out in 1994 in a document issued by the Government (Government Resolution No. 63/1994, “Concept of the Government’s Approach to Issues Concerning National Minorities in the Czech Republic”[25]), but it was not legally binding.
The first time that Czech law explicitly defined the concept of “national” minorities and “members” of national minorities was in 2001, with Act No. 273/2001 on the Rights of Members of National Minorities and Amendments of Some Acts[26], which was adopted on July 10, 2001, and entered into force on August 2. This act, which was prepared with the active participation of members of national minorities, implements the principles set out in the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms and, besides recognising the rights of members of national minorities, it specifies the competence of ministries, administrative authorities and authorities of territorial self-administration units in relation to these rights. Its provisions are rather general and declaratory in nature, mostly paraphrasing the declarations of the Charter and referring to provisions of special laws. Moreover, the application of many of the rights thereby guaranteed requires that a given minority constitute at least 10% of the population of a municipality, which effectively excludes Roma in most municipalities[27]. As regards the use of language, it recognises the right of using name and surname in the language of a national minority (Art. 7)[28], the right of multilingual names and denominations (Art. 8)[29], the right of using the language of a national minority in official documentation and discourse and hearing before a court (Art. 9), the right of using the language of a national minority during elections (Art. 10)[30], the right of education in the language of a national minority (Art. 11)[31], and the right to spread and receive information in the language of a national minority (Art. 13)[32] . It also determines the establishment of a consultative and initiative-launching body, the Council for National Minorities, which is composed of representatives of the Slovak, Polish, German, Romani, Hungarian, and Ukrainian minorities.
As regards multilateral agreements or international treaties, which are a part of the Czech law in accordance with Article 10 of the Constitution[33], the Czech Republic is a signatory state of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the European Charter of Regional or Minority Languages, although only the first has been ratified.
The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities[34] was signed by the Czech Republic in 1995, it was ratified on December 18, 1997, and it entered into force on April 1, 1998. The last step up to date of the monitoring mechanism[35] was the Committee of Ministers’ Resolution[36] issued on February 6, 2002, on its implementation, in which the Committee of Ministers invited the Czech Government to keep the Advisory Committee regularly informed of the measures it has taken.
The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages was signed by the Czech Republic on November 2000, but it still has not been ratified, since, on the basis of the present Czech legal regulations, the Czech Republic is not able to comply to a full extent with the obligations resulting from entering the Charter into force (as for now it can assume only a minimum of obligations included in Article 10 of the Charter, regarding administrative authorities and public services). Therefore, the Government is to take appropriate measures, among which the most important one is the adoption of new Rules of Administrative Procedure, which were submitted as a bill to the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament. However, the chamber did not approve it in its third reading in February 2002[37].
Finally, the Czech Republic has also reached bilateral agreements with neighbouring states[38] (the Slovak Republic, Poland and Germany), which further guarantee the protection of the rights of national minorities. Two of these agreements are prior to the independence of the Czech Republic and two are subsequent; they are: the Agreement between the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic and Poland on Good Neighbour Relations, Solidarity and Friendly Cooperation (signed in 1991) (including the Program of Cultural, Academic and Scientific Cooperation between the Government of the Czech Republic and the Government of Poland during 1996-1998), the Agreement between the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic and the Federative Republic of Germany on Good Neighbour Relations and Friendly Cooperation (1992), the Agreement between the Czech Republic and Slovakia on Good Neighbourliness, Friendly Relations and Cooperation (1993), and the Agreement between the Government of the Czech Republic and the Government of Poland on Cross-Border Cooperation (1994), which concerns mainly the educational system and cultural activities.
3. Slovakia
3.1. Demographic aspects
Slovakia
is one of the most ethnically mixed countries in Central Europe. According
to the public census of May 26, 2001[39],
14.3% of the population declared a non-Slovak ethnicity, although this proportion
may be as high as 21-22%[40].
As regards the amount of non-Slovak speakers, in 1991 15.7% of the population
declared a language other than Slovak as their mother tongue.
According to the 1991 census, Hungarians constitute by far the largest minority, also in terms of language, as Hungarian-speakers make up 11.5% of the Slovak population. They are settled compactly along Slovakia’s southern border in ethnically mixed regions together with other minorities and Slovaks. Although they are in decline, nearly all of them (97%) live in municipalities where they constitute 20% or more of the population. In more ethnically mixed districts (where Hungarians make up 10% or more of the population) bilingualism is most common.
As for the Roma, they are definitely underestimated, since their population is estimated to be between 350,000 and 520,000 persons (6.5-9.7%), being also the second largest linguistic minority, with 245,000 to 365,000 Romani speakers (4.6-6.2%).
The third and fourth linguistic minorities are, respectively, Czechs and Ruthenians (or Rusyns), although some estimates place Ruthenians in third position, with 120,000 speakers (2.2%), whose language and identity has undergone a general revival since 1989. Like Hungarians, Ruthenians and Ukrainians are compactly settled, in North-eastern Slovakia.
| Identitat
nacional |
Xifra absoluta (1991) |
Xifra absoluta (2001) |
Percentatge (1991) |
Percentatge (2001) |
Llengua
materna (1991) |
Llengua
materna (2001) |
| Eslovacs | 4.590.100 |
4.614.854 |
85,7% |
85,8% |
84,3% |
83,9% |
| Hongaresos | 568.714 |
520.528 |
10,6% |
9,7% |
11,5% |
10,7% |
| Romà | 83.988 |
89.920 |
1,4% |
1,7% |
1,5% |
1,8% |
Txecs(total) |
51.293
|
44.620 46.968 |
1,0% 1,1% |
0,8%
|
- - 1,1% |
- - 0,9% |
| Rutens | 17.277 |
24.201 |
0,3% |
0,5% |
0,9%
|
1,0% |
| Ucraïnesos | 14.341 |
10.814 |
0,3%
|
0,2%
|
0,2%
|
0,1%
|
| Alemanys | 5.380 |
5.405 |
0,1% |
0,1%
|
0,1%
|
0,1%
|
| Polonesos | 3.039 |
2.602 |
0,1% |
(<0,1%) |
0,1%
|
0,1%
|
| Russos | 1.590 |
(<0,1%) |
- |
-
|
||
| Búlgars | 1.400 |
1.179 |
(<0,1%)
|
(<0,1%) |
- |
-
|
| Croats | 4.000 |
890 |
0,1% |
(<0,1%) |
- |
-
|
| Serbis | 434 |
(<0,1%) |
- |
-
|
||
| Jueus | 3.500 |
218 |
0,1% |
(<0,1%) |
- |
-
|
| Altres | 6.814 |
5.350 |
0,1% |
0,1% |
0,1%
|
0,2% |
| Desconeguts | 54.502 |
|
1,0%
|
0,2%
|
1,2%
|
|
| TOTAL | 5.356.207 |
5.379.455 |
100,0% |
100,0% |
100,0% |
100,0% |
3.2. Language-related legislation
The Constitution of the Slovak Republic was adopted on September 1, 1992, and it established the pre-eminence of the Slovak nation[41]; this is confirmed by Article 6, § 1, which establishes that “the Slovak language is the official language”. This dominant position of the Slovak language is based on a pre-existing act of the Czechoslovak Federation (Act No. 428/1990 on the Official Language of the Slovak Republic[42]). In terms of minority language rights, the Constitution includes the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms of 1991 (Part 2), which, as already noted, guarantees the right to “receive and disseminate information in their mother tongues” (Art. 34.1), “the right to be educated in a minority language” (Art. 34.2.a), and “the right to use a minority language in official communications” (Art. 34.2.b).
Three years after the adoption of the Constitution, Act No. 270/1995 on the State Language of the Slovak Republic was passed and it entered into force on January 1, 1996, thereby cancelling the Act on the Official Language of 1990. This new act was a means of reasserting the position of the Slovak language above minority languages, especially Hungarian, in the first place, and Czech, the first being a historical rival (as the Slovak language had suffered a magyarisation process under historic Hungary and between 1938-1945)[43], and the second being the dominant language during the period of joint statehood. It reads that “the Slovak language is the most important feature of the individuality of the Slovak nation, the most precious value of its cultural heritage and the expression of sovereignty of the Slovak Republic and the universal communication means for its citizens, that ensures their freedom and equality in dignity and rights on the territory of the Slovak Republic”, and that “the state language has preference over other languages used on the territory of the Slovak Republic” (Art. 1.2). Thus, it stipulates that the Slovak language is to be used in official contacts (Art. 3), in primary and secondary schools (Art. 4), in mass information media and at cultural events and public gatherings (Art. 5). It also states that the usage of languages of national minorities is to be regulated by special laws (Article 1.4), as well as the “broadcasting in languages of national minorities and ethnic groups” (Art. 5.1). One of the most controversial aspects of the law was that it fixed high fines, a measure which national minorities considered to be aimed at financially ruining their institutions[44]. In 1997, the Slovak Constitutional Court ruled that the Act on the State Language contravened the Slovak Constitution, but the government did not amend it, despite the international community’s criticism.
However, in 1999 this attitude changed, as the need to satisfy EU criteria in order to become a member-state led to the adoption of Act No. 184/1999 on the Use of Minority Languages, which was adopted on July 10 and entered into force on September 1. This act filled up the legal void regarding the use of minority languages that was left after the 1995 Act on the State Language, and it was very positively interpreted by international organisations. However, it only deals with the use of minority languages in official contacts with local self-governments and it restricts the rights it grants by creating exceptions, such as “upon request” or “with the exception of”. Moreover, its implementation has been very weak thusfar. Like the 1990 Act on the Official Language, it is addressed to municipalities with a minority population threshold of 20% (Art. 2.1)[45], whose list is to be established by a decree issued by the government (Art. 2.2)[46] . It can also be interpreted as restrictive, since it states that municipalities may use minority languages to mark streets and to display other geographical signs (Art. 4.1) and that “local administration bodies and their employees are obliged to use in official contacts the state language, and may use a minority language” (Art. 7.1). By contrast to this article, Art. 7.2 stipulates that “local administration bodies […] are obliged to create conditions for the use of minority languages”. As for the use of minority languages in court proceedings, education and culture, it is to be regulated by separate laws (Art. 5), and, in case of doubt, decisions made in administrative proceedings are to be issued in the state language. Moreover, the act’s precedence is not clear, since it only cancels Article 10 of the 1995 Act on the State Language (referring to the fines).
As regards international treaties, Slovakia has ratified both the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities[47] was signed by the Slovak Republic on February 1 and ratified on September 14, 1995, and it entered into force on February 1, 1998. The Committee of Ministers issued its Resolution[48] on November 21, 2001, in which, as with the Czech Republic, it invited the Slovak Government to keep the Advisory Committee regularly informed of the measures it has taken.
The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages[49] was signed by the Slovak Republic on February 20 and ratified on September 5, 2001, and it entered into force on January 1, 2002. According to the monitoring schedule, Slovakia should issue its Initial Periodical Report soon. In its declarations, the Slovak Republic stated that the Charter would be applied to municipalities with a population threshold of 20%, pursuant to Decree 221/1999, and that the minority languages of the Slovak Republic are Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, German, Hungarian, Polish, Roma, Ruthenian and Ukrainian, although they are grouped in three categories or degrees of protection, based on the provisions applied to them. Thus, Hungarian is the most protected minority language, Ukrainian and Ruthenian have an intermediate level of protection, and Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, German, Polish and Romani are given the lowest degree of protection.
Finally, as regards bilateral agreements with neighbouring states, the Slovak Republic has reached some with the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany (all already mentioned in 2.2), Hungary and Ukraine. As for the latter two, they are the Treaty on Good Neighbourliness and Friendly Co-operation[50] of 1995 with the Republic of Hungary (the articles that directly apply to the use of language are 12.6, 12.7 and 15.2.g.) and the Treaty on Good Neighbourliness, Friendly Relations and Co-operation between the Slovak Republic and Ukraine.
4. EU-accession: compliance with the political criteria
Accession to the EU is to be decided on the basis of 3 types of criteria (the so-called Copenhagen criteria, established at the European Council meeting in Copenhagen in June 1993): political criteria, economic criteria and the adoption of the Community acquis, although the compliance of the political criteria is a precondition for commencing negotiations for accession. These criteria stipulate that candidate countries must have achieved “stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities”.[51]
From the perspective of the European Commission[52], the Czech Republic continues to fulfil the political criteria, given the considerable efforts as regards Roma and other minorities. The establishment of a legislative framework regulating the rights of national minorities (the 2001 minority act) and a government policy for Roma (the “Concept for Roma Integration”, adopted in June 2000), have been seen as crucial steps. However, the European Commission considers that, while the situation of non-Roma minorities is “largely satisfactory”, Roma still suffer from widespread discrimination in the field of education, among others. The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers reached a very similar conclusion[53], as it welcomed the adoption of the 2001 minority act and the establishment of the Government Council for National Minorities and the Committees for National Minorities at local and regional levels, and at the same time it called for further measures in order to ensure full implementation of the existing constitutional guarantees.
As regards the Slovak Republic, the European Commission believes[54] that it fulfils the Copenhagen criteria, although only since recently, considering the fact that the 1999 Regular Report was the first one to provide a positive evaluation of Slovakia’s efforts towards the protection of its minorities; this progress has been confirmed in the subsequent reports. Concerning the implementation of the Act on the Use of Minority Languages of 1999, the Commission claims that in many areas the lack of information continues to cause that national minorities do not make use of the rights granted under this act. This is in line with the opinion of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers, which sustains[55] that “despite recent improvements in the legal status of minority languages in official contacts, the legislative framework touching upon languages still contains shortcomings”. As for the situation of minorities, it holds a similar opinion as the Commission considering that valuable efforts have been made “to support national minorities and their cultures, and improvements have been achieved in recent years in inter-community relations, in particular between the Hungarian minority and other parts of the population of Slovakia”. However, the situation of the Roma community remains difficult, despite the efforts to strengthen the office of the Government Plenipotentiary for Roma affairs (which, for instance, has started codifying the Romani language, in co-operation with other institutions). In this sense, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers claims that legal guarantees regarding some articles of the Framework Convention need to be strengthened and that there remain problems in its implementation as concerns Roma.
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| [1] | Nekvapil, J., Neustupný, J.V. “Linguistic Communities in the Czech Republic”. In: Bratt Paulston, C. & Peckham, D., eds. (1998), p. 117. |
| [2] | http://www.ihf-hr.org/reports/Minoroties/Czechfin.pdf |
| [3] | See http://www2.tltc.ttu.edu/kelly/Archive/czslconst1920.html#Langrights |
| [4] | Notwithstanding this unified denomination, the Czech and the Slovak languages had a separate presence at schools and in the media in the Czech Lands and in Slovakia. Both communities had a very good passive knowledge of the other language but did not speak it unless they moved to the other part of the country and learned it there. (Source: Nekvapil, J., Neustupný, J.V. “Linguistic Communities in the Czech Republic”. In: Bratt Paulston, C. & Peckham, D., eds. (1998), p. 258). |
| [5] | http://www.adc.sk/english/slovakia/slovak10.htm |
| [6] | See Article 131 of the Constitution and Article 5 of the Law on Language Rights of 1920 (http://www2.tltc.ttu.edu/kelly/Archive/czslconst1920.html#Langrights). |
| [7] | See Articles 128.3 and 130 of the Constitution and Articles 1 and 3 of the Law on Language Rights of 1920 (http://www2.tltc.ttu.edu/kelly/Archive/czslconst1920.html#Langrights). |
| [8] | http://www.ecmi.de/doc/download/working_paper_8.pdf, p. 10. |
| [9] | Nekvapil, J., Neustupný, J.V. “Linguistic Communities in the Czech Republic”. In: Bratt Paulston, C. & Peckham, D., eds. (1998), p. 118. |
| [10] | http://www.1upinfo.com/country-guide-study/czechoslovakia/czechoslovakia106.html |
| [11] | http://www.hungary.com/corvinus/lib/bors/bors18.htm |
| [12] | http://www.vlada.cz/1250/eng/vrk/rady/rnr/dokumenty/plneni.eng.htm |
| [13] | Nekvapil, J., Neustupný, J.V. “Linguistic Communities in the Czech Republic”. In: Bratt Paulston, C. & Peckham, D., eds. (1998), p. 118-119. |
| [14] | http://www.slovakia.org/history-breakup.htm |
| [15] | Preliminary
census results. Source: http://wtd.vlada.cz/files/rvk/rnm/zprava_mensiny_2001_en.pdf |
| [16] | Sources: Nekvapil, J., Neustupný, J.V. “Linguistic Communities in the Czech Republic”. In: Bratt Paulston, C. & Peckham, D., eds. (1998), p. 121; and http://www.ihf-hr.org/reports/Minoroties/Czechfin.pdf |
| [17] | Including (depending on year of census) Bulgarians, Greeks, Serbians, Croatians, Rumanians, Ruthenians, Albanians, Austrians or Jews. |
| [18] | http://www.humanrights.coe.int/Minorities/Eng/FrameworkConvention/StateReports/1999/czech/Part_I.htm |
| [19] | http://southerncaucus.org/sj12.htm |
| [20] | Nekvapil, J., Neustupný, J.V. “Linguistic Communities in the Czech Republic”. In: Bratt Paulston, C. & Peckham, D., eds. (1998), p. 122-123. |
| [21] | ŠATAVA, L. “Lesser-Used Language Groups in the Czech Republic”. In: Directorate-General for Research (European Parliament), ed., p. 49. |
| [22] | http://us-english.org/foundation/Czech.PDF |
| [23] | Art. 6: “Political decisions shall proceed from the will of the majority, expressed by free vote. Majority decisions shall respect protection of minorities.” |
| [24] | “An integral component of the constitutional system of the Czech Republic is the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. |
| [25] | This document provided a definition of the term “national minority”, which, based on current legal practice, corresponded to the status of the Slovak, Polish, German, Romani, Hungarian, and Ukrainian minorities, whose representatives were members of the Government’s Council for National Minorities; and, to a lesser extent, it also applied to less numerous groups who were not represented in the Council, i.e. Bulgarians, Ruthenians (if they do not consider themselves Ukrainians), Russians, Jews, Croatians and Greeks. (Source: http://www.ihf-hr.org/reports/Minoroties/Czechfin.pdf). |
| [26] | Article 2, “Definition of basic concepts”. The full text of this law can be consulted in Bulletin no. 50 at Mercator–Legislation’s website (http://www.ciemen.org/mercator/index-gb.htm). |
| [27] | http://www.eumap.org/reports/2002/content/07/203/2002_m_czech.pdf, p. 173 |
| [28] | Further legislation: Act 301/2001, on registers, name and surname. |
| [29] | Further legislation: Act 128/2000, on communities (local government). |
| [30] | Further legislation regarding the use of mother tongue: in judicial proceedings (Acts 99/1963, 335/1991, 182/1993, 141/1961 and 265/2001), in administrative proceedings (Acts 563/1991, 202/1990, 63/1999 and 337/1992) and in electoral affairs (Acts 491/2001 and 37/2002). |
| [31] | Further legislation regarding the use of language in education: Acts 76/1978, 29/1984 and 564/1990. |
| [32] | Further legislation regarding the use of language in the media: Acts 46/2001, 231/2001, 483/1991 and 484/1991. |
| [33] | “Ratified and promulgated international treaties on human rights and fundamental freedoms, whereby the Czech Republic is obligated, shall be directly binding and shall have precedence over the law.” |
| [34] | No declaration was submitted by the Czech Republic. See http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/WhatYouWant.asp?NT=157&CM=8&DF= |
| [35] | See
http://www.coe.int/T/e/human_rights/Minorities/2._FRAMEWORK_CONVENTION_(MONITORING) /2._Monitoring_mechanism/ |
| [36] | ResCMN(2002)2, http://cm.coe.int/stat/E/Public/2002/adopted_texts/resCMN/2002xn2.htm |
| [37] | http://wtd.vlada.cz/files/rvk/rnm/zprava_mensiny_2001_en.pdf |
| [38] | http://www.humanrights.coe.int/Minorities/Eng/FrameworkConvention/StateReports/1999/czech/article_18.htm#41_return |
| [39] | Sources
for the 2001 census: http://www.statistics.sk/webdata/english/census2001/tab/tab.htm, http://www.ihf-hr.org/reports/Minoroties/Slovakiafin.pdf, http://www.centroconsult.sk/Genealogy/census.html, http://www.worldbank.org/transitionnewsletter/janfeb2002/pgs34-35.html. Sources for the 1991 census: http://www.humanrights.coe.int/Minorities/Eng/FrameworkConvention/StateReports/1999/slovakia/slovakia/Article_3.htm, http://www.ecmi.de/doc/download/working_paper_8.pdf |
| [40] | http://www.ecmi.de/doc/download/working_paper_8.pdf |
| [41] | The Preamble of the Constitution reads “My, národ slovenský…”, which in the English version issued by the Slovak Government is translated as “We, the Slovak people…”. However, the term národ is ambiguous, since it can also be translated as nation. It later reads “[…] together with members of national minorities and ethnic groups living in the Slovak Republic”. |
| [42] | This
law established that Slovak was the official language, but it also allowed
for the use of Czech in official contact and the use of minority languages
in municipalities where minorities constituted at least 20% of the population.
However, employees of state administration and local government bodies
were not required to know and use the minority language, and all public
documents were to be issued in the official language only. Source: http://www.ecmi.de/doc/download/working_paper_8.pdf |
| [43] | http://www.ecmi.de/doc/download/working_paper_8.pdf, p. 26. |
| [44] | http://www.hhrf.org/minoritiesresearch/mr11.htm |
| [45] | The Hungarian coalition partners had requested a lower 10% threshold. |
| [46] | The list of municipalities to which the Law on the Use of Minority Languages applies was established by Decree 221/1999, of August 25, which included 656 municipalities but left some cities with a minority population of over 100,000 outside the sphere of protection. However, the European Commission welcomed the adoption of the law as a positive step. |
| [47] | No
declaration was submitted by the Slovak Republic. See http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/WhatYouWant.asp?NT=157&CM=8&DF= |
| [48] | ResCMN(2001)5, in http://cm.coe.int/stat/E/Public/2001/adopted_texts/resCMN/2001xn5.htm |
| [49] | Provisions
applied to Slovakia’s minority languages can be consulted in http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/cadreprincipal.htm |
| [50] | The official English translation can be found at http://www.htmh.hu/dokumentumok/asz-sk-e.htm |
| [51] | http://www.eu2002.dk/eu/default.asp?MenuElementID=5182 |
| [52] | 2002
Regular Report on Czech Republic’s Progress Towards Accession, http://europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/report2002/cz_en.pdf |
| [53] | ResCMN(2002)2, http://cm.coe.int/stat/E/Public/2002/adopted_texts/resCMN/2002xn2.htm |
| [54] |
2002 Regular Report on Slovakia’s Progress Towards Accession, http://europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/report2002/sk_en.pdf |
| [55] | ResCMN(2001)5, in http://cm.coe.int/stat/E/Public/2001/adopted_texts/resCMN/2001xn5.htm |