Abstract
Are Indigenous and minority children guaranteed a right to learn both their own languages and at least a/the dominant language in their country of residence, up to a high formal level, through bilingual education of various kinds, most importantly including a right to mother-tongue-based multilingual (MTM) education (see Skutnabb-Kangas and McCarty 2008 for definitions)? Do schools support Indigenous/tribal/minority communities’ right to reproduce themselves as Indigenous/tribal peoples/minorities (ITMs), through enabling and encouraging intergenerational transfer of their languages? In other words, do ITM children enjoy linguistic human rights (LHRs) in education?
This chapter attempts to answer these questions. It analyses how bilingual education intersects with issues of language rights (LRs). It presents some of the important international and regional legal provisions and it discusses their implications.
The conclusion is that there are still relatively few binding positive rights to MTM education or bilingual education in present international law, including case law. Today most language-related human rights are negative rights, only prohibiting discrimination on the basis of language. Explanations and interpretations of human rights law and many court cases have made it clear that treating citizens de jure equally, i.e., identically (for instance, using an official language as the only medium of education for all children, regardless of their linguistic background and competencies) does not lead to de facto equality and may often constitute discrimination. Identical treatment is not always equal treatment. “Positive discrimination” or “affirmative action” is necessary for substantive de facto equality. Neoliberal ideologies are disastrous for ITMs human rights.
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Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (2016). Language Rights and Bilingual Education. In: Garcia, O., Lin, A., May, S. (eds) Bilingual and Multilingual Education. Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02324-3_6-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02324-3_6-1
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