Language and
the UN Declaration of Human
Rights
In the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, the word “language”
appears only once - in Article 2, as an example of a
“distinction” which may not be used to deprive people of their rights. And
that’s it.
However, other “human rights” include compulsory elementary education (Article 26). This is bizarre in itself, since while
children love to learn, virtually
the worst way of getting them to learn is to force them.
Furthermore, even though “parents have a prior right to choose the kind of
education that shall be given to their children”, there is nothing specific to
say what language this education must be given in.
The upshot of this is that if children try to skip school because the
teacher speaks a different language, failing
to stop them could technically be considered a human rights abuse!
Yet at the same time, refusing to teach children in their own language can
cause that language, and much of its associated culture, to die out. This has
led to allegations that “schools are every day
committing linguistic genocide.”
There are other means of
education besides school, such as home
education. Not all governments permit home education, and those that do
keep quiet about it. In any case, even for home education, the national
official language is usually compulsory.
When the apartheid regime in South Africa decided in 1976 that black
students must be taught in Afrikaans, not English, this was rightly met with
protests. Yet the media ignores countless other students who are refused their
preferred choice of language of instruction. It seems that only those who take
part in “fashionable” protests get heard.
From Article 2:
“Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set
forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race,
colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social
origin, property, birth or other status.”
From Article 26: