In November 2007, the Celtic League wrote to the Bureau of the Follow-up Committee on the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights (UDLR) to ascertain what progress was being made to pursue the objectives enshrined in the Declaration.

The Celtic League was one of the original signatories of the UDLR in Barcelona in 1996, which was signed by a large number of NGO´s, language experts, consultant bodies and language groups from around the world in an attempt to persuade the United Nations to adopt the Declaration and apply pressure on state Governments to ratify it.

The Celtic League have now this week received a reply from the Follow-up Committee who have confirmed that progress has been made. The Follow up Committee's Technical Secretary states in his letter that during 2007:

"...there have been two meetings in Geneva with the former (Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba) and the current (Ambassador Doru-Romulus Costea) President of the United Nations' Human Rights Council (and Aureli Argemí and Josep-Maria Terricabras, Vice-president and President of the UDLR Follow-up Committee), the second one took place at the end of December 2007."

It was further stated that:

"Both Ambassadors are willing to support the UDLR" and that "Ambassador De Alba considered that linguistic rights should be an issue to take into account when dealing with human rights in every country/state, and Ambassador Costea also agrees on this point."

In addition to this, the Follow-up Committee say that "an act related to the UN International Year of Languages 2008, at the UN' headquarters in Geneva" will take place "to promote the UDLR among the other ambassadors in order to be adopted as a UN' Convention."

Needless to say the Celtic League will be further writing to the Follow-up Committee to determine the nature of this act and will be available to help lobby other Ambassadors to the UN and their Governments to adopt the Declaration. One of the main aims of the League in this respect will be to lobby the French Government to adopt the Declaration in support of the Breton language community.

As it will be remembered, the League wrote to the previous French Ambassador to the UN, Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, on several occasions, to ask him for clarification of French motives in originally proposing the motion to make 2008 the UN International Year of Languages. In the past, the French position has been fully against the promotion and recognition of its other state languages, including Breton. The League wrote to de La Sabliere to ask if the UN motion signalled a thawing of French policy on the issue. The League will also write to the new French Ambassador to the UN, Jean-Maurice Ripert, who took over from de La Sabliere in August 2007.

The League has also written a number of times to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in recent months to get them to update their Red Book of Endangered Languages, with regard to the Cornish and Manx languages. The Red Book states that these respective languages are extinct, when in fact they are not.

The full text of the letter from the UDLR Follow-up Committee (including their website address) can be found below:

"Dear Mr. Tal-e-bot,

During the year 2007 there have been two meetings in Geneva with the former ((Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba) and the current (Ambassador Doru-Romulus Costea) President of the United Nations' Human Rights Council (and Aureli Argemí and Josep-Maria Terricabras, Vice-president and President of the UDLR Follow-up Committee), the second one took place at the end of December 2007. Both Ambassadors are willing to support the UDLR, Ambassador De Alba considered that linguistic rights should be an issue to take into account when dealing with human rights in every country/state, and Ambassador Costea also agrees on this point.

So during this year 2008, the UDLR Follow-up Committee, with the support of Ambassador Costea, the President of the Humans Rights Council, will organize an act related to the UN International Year of Languages 2008, at the UN' headquarters in Geneva, to promote the UDLR among the other ambassadors in order to be adopted as a UN' Convention.

We can say that this is something quite important, and it is very positive for the Declaration to become a Convention of the UN, but it depends on the other ambassadors.

It is still possible to give support to the UDLR as an entity/organization.

We will provide you with an up-to-date list of the members of the UDLR Follow-up Scientific Council a.s.a.p., we are currently working on this in order to update the UDLR webpage, so it will appear there as well.

Yours sincerely,

Technical Secretary UDLR Follow-up Committee CIEMEN, Barcelona

(voir le site) "

See related article on Celtic News at:

(voir le site)

Also see related article in older Celtic News archive at:

(voir le site)

J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League

07/03/08

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