Language Rights in Education – Can Laws Change Realities? Some Thoughts On The Basis of the Experience Under the Framework Convention on National Minorities

Sia Spiliopoulou Åkermark, Associate Professor in International Law, Uppsala University and Former Member of the Advisory Committee of Experts on the Framework Convention on National Minorities of the Council of Europe

Education is considered today as a goal in its own right as well as a forceful tool for transmitting knowledge, attitudes and values. No other issue is given such space in the Framework Convention on National Minorities (Council of Europe), with three specific provisions, as well as explicit references to education in general provisions concerning equality and intercultural dialogue. The multiple –and perhaps to some extent contradictory – aims of education are extensively outlined in Article 29 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The protection of national minorities and of the rights and freedoms of persons belonging to those minorities forms an integral part of the international protection of human rights as provided in Article 1 of the Framework Convention. It follows that the right to education and the rights in education for minorities are an integral part of education rights as entrenched in a number of specific provisions in international instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The importance of the national legal and institutional framework of education Rights to, and in education, need to be institutionalised and safeguarded in clear and coherent legal acts. State Parties must also dedicate the financial resources necessary for the implementation of adopted legislation at national, regional and local level. This is not always the case especially as education budgets in many countries in Europe have faced cuts in recent years.

Minority languages are in some cases officially treated as "foreign languages" placed in the same position as foreign languages with no historical or cultural link to the country concerned. In other cases the complexity of laws and decrees in this field is such that those concerned (heads of schools, responsible authorities, teachers, parents and pupils) are unaware of the actual rules, rights and duties. The issue of complexity of the legal framework is linked to the current trend for decentralization of education, with responsibility delegated to local authorities and further to heads of schools.

Another aspect related to the legal framework, is that of the means of supervision and subsequently of enforcement of legal provisions concerning education. Since many State Parties have provisions on the right to education in their constitutions as well as in a number of other pieces of legislation, it is remarkable that there is hardly any information in State Reports under the Framework Convention on the judicial or other means to enforce such provisions. This includes also issues of discrimination in education.