Introduction

The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (the ‘Charter’) is a Council of Europe treaty that was opened for signature on 5 November 1992, and which came into force on 1 March 1998. Twenty-three states have ratified the Charter and a further eleven have signed it.

Strictly speaking, the Charter is not a minority-specific instrument at all, and its origins and purpose differ in important respects from the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (the ‘Framework Convention’) and other minority-specific provisions. Strictly speaking, it is not a human rights instrument either; as we shall see, the text of the Charter does not create any individual or collective rights for speakers of regional or minority languages, a point made clear in the Charter's Explanatory Report. Rather, as its title suggests, the Charter focuses on languages themselves, and the consequences of this are important, and will also be considered further, below. However, it is also important to note that the formal position just described tells only part of the story. Languages are spoken by people, and any attempt to protect a language will have implications for those who speak it, a point that is acknowledged in the Explanatory Report. As we shall see, the provisions of the Charter are of considerable importance for members of certain minorities, and the implementation of the Charter may in some cases imply the creation of a legislative framework and even of certain rights.