Language & Culture Diversity

ECMI’s initiative on Language and Culture Diversity starts from the premise that language diversity is the core component of cultural diversity, as it enables the transmission of fundamental aspects of different cultures to succeeding generations and the interaction of communities belonging to different cultural backgrounds. Language and culture are those elements that have very much reflected the values and particularities of different societies, since they are part of the human intangible heritage.

ECMI is sensitive to the range of issues that are relevant for the effective promotion and protection of linguistic and cultural diversity. They are not only related to differences in size between communities, but also to differences in their resources, influence, finances, and networking capacities. Nevertheless, neither the EU Member States nor the members of the Council of Europe have so far, developed a concept that takes into account the strategic importance of promoting linguistic and cultural inclusion. Member States have not addressed sufficiently the importance that culture can have in promoting social cohesion, and the actual underlying approaches carried out by them have varied enormously.

Two major legal instruments of the Council of Europe — The  Framework Convention  for  the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM) and The European Charter for Regional or  Minority Languages (ECRML) —highlight the importance of the issues of preservation and protection of minority languages and of the relationship between minority and state languages. 2008 marks the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the ECRML, a unique legal instrument which has no parallel elsewhere in the world. This year also marks the 10th anniversary of adoption of the Oslo Recommendations regarding the Linguistic Rights of National Minorities, a series of recommendations regarding the use of minority languages made by experts from several areas and endorsed by the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities. However, how effective these instruments are and how they promote governments’ compliance will be analyzed in the Programme’s focus points.

Respect for linguistic and cultural diversity is also one of the cornerstones of the European Union. Article 22 of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights states that “[t]he Union respects cultural, religious and linguistic diversity”. In this context, respect for cultural and linguistic diversity must be seen as a key element for individuals’ development and for their capacity to live in society, especially by allowing them to act in the economic sphere with no risk of exclusion.

Another aspect of changing relations is the effect of language loss on ethnic identity, which is leading to a change in values that limits the spectrum of cultural diversity. In many European countries, minority groups who lost their language are now desperately trying to revitalize it and to regain the related aspects of their identity.

Stronger emphasis needs to be placed on embracing cultural diversity by acknowledging that language and culture promote other forms of dialogue and can, thus, enhance social inclusion in plural societies. Stakeholders and civil society groups must be invited to contribute to policy-making. ECMI’s focus is on obstacles to participation in political and public life that are based on language barriers, and on how governments can help to overcome such obstacles by developing appropriate public policies. For instance, governments can do so by providing educational services in the minority language at the national, regional and local levels, by offering assistance to media outlets that broadcast in minority languages, by supporting efforts by speakers of minority languages to learn the state’s language and by encouraging the employment of members of minority groups in administrative bodies (Political Participation programme).

In order to ensure security in the wider Europe, minority group members must feel that they have the same potential and protection as other members of society, and that they are equally served by the national system under which they live. ECMI aims at verifying legal commitments and practices with the purposes of allowing minorities to communicate in their own languages and of improving relations between minority groups and the relevant domestic institutions (Conflict Transformation programme).

From an economic perspective, the improvement in levels of language use is also essential for economic and social inclusion of individuals belonging to minority groups (Economic & Social Inclusion programme), as people are more likely to invest in their livelihoods if they can communicate freely in own their minority language as well as in the state language of the country they inhabit.