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International Law and Education in a Minority Language

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Encyclopedia of Language and Education

Introduction

While many linguists and educationalists often refer to a “right to language” or to a “right to be educated in one's own language”, and have done some extremely detailed and well‐researched work (Skutnabb‐Kangas and Phillipson, 1994, pp. 71–110), the purely legal point of view at the international level has not been so accommodating. Only in the last few years have international legal instruments—those which impose legally binding rules rather than noble aspirations—recognised, strictly speaking, such a right. An increasing variety of documents such as the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities ( http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/d_minori.htm) and the 1996 The Hague Recommendations regarding the Education Rights of National Minorities ( http://www.minelres.lv/osce/hagrec.htm), prepared on behalf of the High Commissioner on National Minorities of the Organization for Security and Cooperation...

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Varennes, F.d. (2008). International Law and Education in a Minority Language. In: Hornberger, N.H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30424-3_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30424-3_10

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