Published by: EUD

Published by: EUD
Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Calls for Recognition of Sign Languages

The PArliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe have included a call for sign langauges to be protected.

Liberal Democrat MP, Mr. malcolm BRUCE has been working to secure the protection of the rights of sign language users throughout the 43 Member States of the Council of Europe.

On Thursday 1 February 2001, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a report that includes a call to offer sign languages the same status as spoken minority and regional langauges. This holds out the possibility of a specific recommendation to Member States as to how this might be achieved.

This happened as a result of Mr. BRUCE`s proposal that sign langauges should be included in a report that was prepared by the Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee about national minority languages.

Mr. BRUCE said: "This is a significant step forward. Some members of the Assembly were opposed to treating sign languages in the same way as national minority languages such as Gaelic or Welsh. I am pleased that the majority agreed with me that deaf people have waited too long for proper recognition of sign language"

The Report on the Rights of National Minorities (prepared by the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights) (Doc 8920) includes the following reference to sign languages.

Part 1, Paragraph 11 states:
"The Assembly therefore recommends that the Committee of Ministers....(ix) give the various sign languages utilised in Europe a protection similar to that afforded by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, possibly by means of the adoption of a recommendation to Member States".

The Report on the Rights of National Minorities can be found at: www.greekhelsinki.gr/bhr/english/index.html

The rapporteur for this report was Mr. Rudolf BINDIG (Germany).

(Source: Liberal Democrats News Release, 01.02.2001)

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