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European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages

European treaty adopted in 1992

The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) is a European treaty that was adopted in 1992.

It was designed by the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe. It applies only to languages traditionally used by the nationals of the State Parties that are very different from the majority or official language. The treaty does not protect languages that are used by recent immigrants from other countries. Also, the treaty does not protect local dialects of the official or majority language.

To be protected, a language must be spoken either by the people living in a region or area of the country or by a minority in the country as a whole (languages such as Yiddish and Romani are covered by the treaty even if there is no "Romani region").

National official languages are not covered by the treaty, but some regional official languages are. For example, Catalan is official only in a region of Spain and so can benefit from the treaty. However, Irish cannot because it is an official language in Ireland even if it is a minority language. However, Irish is protected in Northern Ireland because it is not an official or national language of the United Kingdom.

France has signed the treaty, but the French constitution does not allow the government to support a language other than French.

There are two levels of protection. Every country that signed the treaty must give all qualifying languages the lower level of protection. Countries may decide to give some languages the higher level of protection. Countries then must do 35 things.

Languages protected under the Charter

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Here are the countries that have ratified the Charter and the languages for which the ratification was made:

  Armenia ratification: 25 January 2002

  Austria ratification: 28 June 2001[1]

  Bosnia and Herzegovina ratification: 21 September 2010

  Croatia ratification: 5 November 1997

  Cyprus ratification: 26 August 2002

  Czech Republic ratification: 15 November 2006

  Denmark ratification: 8 September 2000[2]

  Finland ratification: 9 November 1994

  Germany ratification: 16 September 1998[3]

  Hungary ratification: 26 April 1995

  Liechtenstein ratification: 18 November 1997

  • No regional or minority languages

  Luxembourg ratification: 22 June 2005

  • No regional or minority languages[4]

  Montenegro ratification: 15 February 2006

  Netherlands ratification: 2 May 1996

  Norway ratification: 10 November 1993[5]

  Poland ratification: 12 February 2009[6]

  Romania ratification 24 October 2007[7]

Part II applied to:

Part III applied to:

  Serbia ratification: 15 February 2006[8][9] [10]

  Slovakia ratification: 5 September 2001

  Slovenia ratification: 4 October 2000

  Spain ratification: 9 April 2001

  Sweden ratification: 9 February 2000

  Switzerland ratification: 23 December 1997

  Ukraine ratification: 19 September 2005

Ukraine does not specify languages by name, but rather ratifies on behalf of "the languages of the following ethnic minorities of Ukraine":[12] Not counted are Rusyns (Ruthenians), because Ukraine (unlike neighboring countries) denies them separate ethnic and linguistic status.

  United Kingdom ratification : 1 July 2001 (effective; ratified 27 March 2001)   Isle of Man extension : 23 April 2003 (declaration dated 22 April 2003)

The Government of the United Kingdom declares [on 23 April 2003] that the Charter should extend to the Isle of Man, being a territory for whose international relations the Government of the United Kingdom is responsible.[13][14][15]

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References

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  1. ↑ Austria has ratified the Charter for each language in respect of specific Länder
  2. ↑ Notes Verbales accompanying the Danish ratification specified that, whilst the Charter was not going to be ratified in respect of the two languages, Faroese and Greenlandic are each official in their respective territories
  3. ↑ Germany has ratified the Charter for each language in respect of specific Länder
  4. ↑ "Report of the Committee of Experts on Luxembourg, December 2008" (PDF). Coe.int. Retrieved 2014-01-30.
  5. ↑ "European charter for regional or minority languages". Regjeringen.no. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
  6. ↑ "List of declarations made with respect to treaty No. 148". Conventions.coe.int. Archived from the original on 2012-05-22.
  7. ↑ [1] Archived November 6, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  8. ↑ Ratified as Serbia and Montenegro on December 22, 2005
  9. ↑ [2] Archived March 11, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  10. ↑ Web page of Council of Europe, Reservations and Declarations for Treaty No.148 - European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
  11. ↑ "Aplicación de la Carta en España, Segundo ciclo de supervisión. Estrasburgo, 11 de diciembre de 2008. A.1.3.28 pag 7 ; A.2.2.5" (PDF). Coe.int. p. 107. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
  12. ↑ As of July 2007, Ukraine's entry on the Council of Europe site Archived 2012-05-22 at the Wayback Machine states the following Ukraine declares that the provisions of the Charter shall apply to the languages of the following ethnic minorities of Ukraine : Belarusian, Bulgarian, Gagauz, Greek, Jewish, Crimean Tatar, Moldavian, German, Polish, Russian, Romanian, Slovak and Hungarian.
  13. ↑ "Full list". Treaty Office.
  14. ↑ "Full list". Treaty Office.
  15. ↑ "Languages covered by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages" (PDF). Coe.int. Retrieved 21 October 2017.

Other websites

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