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The Handbook of Linguistic Human Rights

Tove Skutnabb-Kangas (Edited by), Robert Phillipson (Edited by)

9781119753834, Wiley

Paperback / softback, published 5 September 2024

736 pages
27.2 x 17.8 x 1.9 cm, 1.021 kg

"Compelling testament to the urgency of ensuring linguistic human rights worldwide and to Skutnabb-Kangas' and Phillipson's vision and tenacity in illuminating the field for half a century."
—Nancy H. Hornberger, Professor Emerita, University of Pennsylvania

"Our ability to communicate through language is central to our constitution, evolution, and identity as humans. It is therefore not surprising that this core characteristic of who we are has always been contested as social groups vie for advantage and superiority. The Handbook of Linguistic Human Rights brilliantly brings these realities into the 21st century, combining academic analysis, personal accounts, and evidence-based directions for change. The authors have created a repository of information and inspiration that will fuel language activism for many years to come."
—Jim Cummins, Professor, The University of Toronto

"This impressive and engaging edited Handbook is not only global in coverage and truly comprehensive in scope, it also introduces and formulates the concept linguistic human rights through state-of-the-art theoretical, legal and conceptual discussions. National and thematic examples of violations or good implementation are rounded out by evidence statements on some of humanity's most discerning linguistic identity violations."
—Tove H. Malloy, Professor of European Studies, Europa-Universität Flensburg

"An extraordinarily multifaceted handbook, covering theory and implementation, opportunities and obstacles, global and local perspectives, voices of academics and practitioners. It demonstrates why paying due attention to the – still too often neglected – linguistic dimension of human rights is so crucial for a world in which no one will be left behind."
—Goro Christoph Kimura, Professor, Sophia University, Tokyo

"The handbook is exceptionally valuable for understanding and appreciating the concept of linguistic human rights and their significance for social and linguistic justice. It is well organised, illuminating and highly interesting in its entirety. It can therefore be warmly recommended not only to lawyers and students of law, but to all those interested in the protection of linguistic rights of all people and some form of linguistic justice."
—Marijana Javornik Èubriæ, Professor, Zagreb University

"[In sum], this handbook...presents a wealth of perspectives and case studies of LHRs.... What unites them is the idea that, in addition to serving as the most important means of communication, languages and linguistic diversity are a human heritage deserving of legal protection."
—Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, July, 1 - 3

A groundbreaking new work that sheds light on case studies of linguistic human rights around the world, raising much-needed awareness of the struggles of many peoples and communities

The first book of its kind, the Handbook of Linguistic Human Rights presents a diverse range of theoretically grounded studies of linguistic human rights, exemplifying what linguistic justice is and how it might be achieved. Through explorations of ways in which linguistic human rights are understood in both national and international contexts, this innovative volume demonstrates how linguistic human rights are supported or violated on all continents, with a particular focus on the marginalized languages of minorities and Indigenous peoples, in industrialized countries and the Global South.

Organized into five parts, this volume first presents approaches to linguistic human rights in international and national law, political theory, sociology, economics, history, education, and critical theory. Subsequent sections address how international standards are promoted or impeded and cross-cutting issues, including translation and interpreting, endangered languages and the internet, the impact of global English, language testing, disaster situations, historical amnesia, and more. This essential reference work:

  • Explores approaches to linguistic human rights in countries of great demographic diversity and conflict
  • Covers cases of linguistic human rights in the Americas, China, Europe, North Africa, India, Nepal and New Zealand, including international minorities, such as the Kurds and the Roma, and the Deaf worldwide.
  • Illustrates how education worldwide has often blocked off minority languages by not offering mother-tongue medium education
  • Presents and assesses conventions, declarations, and recommendations that recognize the rights of Indigenous peoples and minorities.
  • Includes a selection of short texts that present additional existential evidence of linguistic human rights.

Edited by two renowned leaders in the field, the Handbook of Linguistic Human Rights is an ideal resource for undergraduate and graduate students of language and law, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, language policy, language education, indigenous studies, language rights, human rights, and globalization.

Acknowledgements ix
Abbreviations xi
Notes on Contributors xv

1 Introduction: Establishing Linguistic Human Rights 1
Tove Skutnabb-Kangas and Robert Phillipson

Part I Approaches to Linguistic Human Rights 23

2 Linguistic Human Rights in International Law 25
Robert Dunbar

3 Sociolinguistic and Political Theory Perspectives on Language Rights 39
Stephen May

4 Linguistic and Epistemic Erasure in Africa: Coloniality, Linguistic Human Rights and Decoloniality 55
Kathleen Heugh

5 Struggling to Access Health Information in the Midst of a Pandemic: Linguistic Human Rights in Indonesia 71
Hywel Coleman and David Fero

6 Economic and Policy Issues in the Promotion of Linguistic Human Rights 95
François Grin

7 Preventing the Implementation of Linguistic Human Rights in Education 109
Tove Skutnabb-Kangas

8 Debating Linguistic Human Rights in Militarised Myanmar: Political Agitation and Policy Deliberation 127
Joseph Lo Bianco

9 Language Policy Implications of 'Global' English for Linguistic Human Rights 143
Robert Phillipson

10 From Neoliberal to Decolonial Language Rights and Reparative Linguistic Justice 159
Ahmed Kabel

Part II International Standards for Linguistic Human Rights 175

11 Some Shortcomings of Linguistic Rights 177
Gudmundur Alfredsson

12 Linguistic Human Rights Challenges in the Work of the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues 183
Fernand de Varennes

13 Time, Politics, and Linguistic Human Rights: Bringing Words to our Songs 195
Elsa Stamatopoulou

14 Linguistic Human Rights Challenges in the Work of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues 211
Ole Henrik Magga

15 Linguistic Human Rights in Relation to the Administration of Justice: A European Perspective 227
Kristin Henrard

16 Using the UN Human Rights Treaty System to Defend LHRs 235
Andrea Bear Nicholas, Lorena Fontaine, Amos Key, Jr and Karihwakéron Tim Thompson

17 The Bangkok Statement on Language and Inclusion: A Rose by Any Other Name? 251
Kirk R. Person

18 Linguistic Human Rights in the Work of the World Federation of the Deaf 267
Victoria Manning, Joseph J. Murray and Alexandre Bloxs

Part III Case Studies: Linguistic Human Rights Violated 281

19 Resistance to the Violations of Linguistic Human Rights in Nunavut, Canada 283
Aluki Kotierk

20 Linguicide and Historicide 295
Andrea Bear Nicholas

21 Linguistic Human Rights for Indigenous Peoples in the USA 303
Jon Reyhner

22 Linguistic Human Rights of Minorities in China 319
Minglang Zhou

23 Linguistic Human Rights in Tibet: Advocacy and Denial 327
Gerald Roche

24 Linguistic, Cultural, and Ethnic Genocide of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, China 341
Abduweli Ayup, Shungqar Tékin and Erkin Sidick

25 Linguistic Human Rights in Kurdistan 357
Jaffer Sheyholislami

26 The Linguistic Human Rights Plight of Hungarians in Ukraine 373
István Csernicskó and Miklós Kontra

27 A Tale of Two Springs and an Impending Winter: Linguistic Human Rights and the Politics of Dignity in North Africa 383
Ahmed Kabel

28 English Linguistic Imperialism and Mother Tongue Medium Education in Ethiopia 393
Yirga G. Woldeyes

29 Judicial Interpretations of the Law to Safeguard Linguistic Minorities in India 405
E. Annamalai

30 Linguistic Human Rights and Higher Education: Reflections from India 413
Shivani Nag

31 Language Matters for Development, Peace, and Reconciliation: The Case for Change in Haiti 427
Dominique Dupuy

32 Romani Emancipation and Linguistic Human Rights 431
Dieter W. Halwachs

Part IV Case Studies: Implementing Linguistic Human Rights 443

33 Finnish and Swedish as National Languages of Finland: A Linguistic Human Rights Success Story – Why and How? 445
Markku Suksi

34 When Implementation of Linguistic Human Rights Does Not Match Legislation – The Case of Sweden 453
Jarmo Lainio

35 Court Challenges and Linguistic Human Rights: The Canadian Case 469
Pierre Foucher

36 Linguistic Human Rights of Indigenous Sámi in the Finnish Education System 477
Ulla Aikio-Puoskari / Gáppe Piera Jovnna Ulla

37 A Time of Promise in Latin America: Linguistic Human Rights from within Language Communities 493
Gabriela Pérez Báez and Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil

38 Pueblo Revitalisation in Education in Southwest USA 507
Christine Sims

39 Language Endangerment and Linguistic Human Rights of a Cross-Border Minority: Karelian in Russia and Finland 517
Anneli Sarhimaa

40 Linguistic Human Rights in Russia 533
Janne Saarikivi

41 Challenges in the Acknowledgement and Implementation of Linguistic Human Rights in Nepal 551
Lava Deo Awasthi, Mark Turin, and Yogendra Prasad Yadava

42 Linguistic Human Rights in Education in India: Odisha's Partial Success Story 561
Ajit Mohanty

43 Language Rights as Human Rights in Aotearoa New Zealand 577
Richard Benton

44 The History of Linguistic Human Rights at Gallaudet University 587
Tawny Holmes Hlibok and Laurene E. Simms

Part V Cross-cutting Issues in Linguistic Human Rights 595

45 The Role of Interpreting and Translation in Promoting Linguistic Human Rights 597
Gabriel González Núñez

46 Language Testing/Assessment and Linguistic Human Rights 605
Elana Shohamy

47 Promoting Linguistic Human Rights Through Language Documentation 613
M. Paul Lewis

48 Linguistic Human Rights, Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, and the Rise of the Multilingual Internet 623
Gregory D.S. Anderson and Anna L. Daigneault

49 Disaster Linguicism as Deprivation of the Victims' Linguistic Human Rights 639
Shinya Uekusa and Steve Matthewman

50 Linguistic Human Rights and the Imperative to Remember in the Philippines 649
Ruanni Tupas

51 Existential Evidence: A Compilation 657
Tove Skutnabb-Kangas and Robert Phillipson

52 Afterword: Pursuing Linguistic Human Rights 679
Robert Phillipson and Tove Skutnabb-Kangas

Index 689

Subject Areas: Language: reference & general [CB]
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