Langues officielles versus droits linguistiques : l’un exclut-il l’autre ?

• Main Author: Fernand de Varennes
• Format: Article
• Language: fra
• Published: L’Harmattan 2012-06-01
• Series: Droit et Cultures
• Subjects: History; Human Rights; Linguistic Rights; Minority Languages; Official Languages
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/droitcultures/2880

Several countries take for granted the fact that the choice of an official language is a State exclusive prerogative. This was confirmed by both the European Court of Human Rights and the U.N. Human Rights Committee on several occasions. There remains however a matter of dispute altogether fundamental and yet often quite misunderstood by some governments as well as by jurists themselves. Indeed, what happens when legislations on the choice of one or more official language(s) exclude or even in some extreme cases « criminalise »the use of another language even within a domestic or private context? This paper attempts to provide an answer to this question by establishing how and why – although the choice of an official language indeed constitutes a prerogative of the State– it doesn’t imply a government to trespass the international law, especially the human rights. Thus, wherever the implementation of a fundamental right such as freedom of expression or forbiddance of discrimination based on language would have the indirect effect of creating a « linguistic right », this right would prevail on the national stipulations regarding official language(s). The resulting establishment of a jurisprudence at the international level remains, however a matter some stakeholders have difficulty to agree upon.