Linguapax
Follow up of the MERCATOR expert seminar
Budapest, 23-24th March, 2011
In the second part of the expert seminar there were country reports/summaries by invited experts and partners on national language legislation, and on the main legislative problems related to the implementation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
The position paper provoked an interesting debate, especially because the participants at the expert meeting had very different backgrounds. The missing potentials of international law on minority languages were discussed from different perspectives: linguists, lawyers and others had all articulated their own viewpoints on the matter. Joan Bernat noted the practical difficulties arising from the obscure definition of "minority" and "minority language". Prof. Darquennes made three main comments regarding not only the problems of definition, but also the role of language in organising our societies. While Dr. Bartha outlined the main language policy issues in Hungary. These and other comments were important contributions to create an open, multi-disciplinary discussion on the expected and real roles of international law in minority language rights protection. If you follow the links below you can read more about experts' comments on the position paper and some information is to be given on country reports.
Comments on prof. Andrassy's position paper by Jeroen Darquennes
Language policy in Hungary - Focusing on linguistic minorities, paper by Csilla Bartha
Comments on prof. Andrassy's position paper by Joan Bernat i Mari