CIAO DATE: 04/04

Minority Languages and Public Administration

Introduction

In its views in the Diergaardt et al. v. Namibia1 case of 25 July 2000, the United Nations Human Rights Committee addressed a complex set of complaints relating to the rights of a small community of people residing in the Rehoboth Gebiet (area) in the vicinity of the Namibian capital Windhoeck. The case as such concerns a situation, shaped by unique historic events, that is not necessarily comparable to minority issues in Europe, and which was decided at the universal, as opposed to the regional, level of human rights protection. Nevertheless, it raises a number of issues that are of relevance beyond the given context.

The present comment is not primarily one on Diergaardt itself, but addresses one of the aspects dealt with by the Committee — and indeed the only one where it found a breach of the human rights guaranteed by the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: The question of the use of (minority) languages in relations between the members of (minority) groups and the public administration. This paper will explore, analyze, and discuss the currently available international norms and standards governing the question of rights of members of (minority) groups and indigenous peoples to use their specific languages in their contacts with public administrative authorities at the state, regional or local levels or, more broadly, in the context of public administration.

Why is the term 'minority' in parentheses? Because the Committee managed to solve that issue on the basis of the general non-discrimination provision (Article 26 of the Covenant) while providing us with few, if any, guidelines for interpreting Article 27 — the very norm safeguarding the rights of ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities, including the right to use their own language. The views are thus a striking example of judicial self-restraint, or cautiousness, on the one hand, and of the possibilities 'general' human rights provisions might offer to litigants who wish to advance minority-related rights, on the other hand.

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