An essay with the above-mentioned title was published this month as:
Chapter 13 for the Handbook of Linguistic Human Rights, Robert Phillipson and Tove Skutnabb-Kangas eds,, Wiley-Blackwell Publishers, Hoboken N.J., pp. 195-209, 2023; also available online as of November 2022, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/9781119753926.ch13.
Summary: A human rights approach to language means that we focus on the people, on the language community, and their dignity. Practices of the past, but even of today, make clear that the eradication of Indigenous languages is not a ‘natural phenomenon’, but mostly a result of systemic discrimination. This chapter approaches linguistic human rights from an international law point of view, specifically, two aspects: (a) linguistic human rights as part of the broader category of cultural human rights; and (b) how the lens of time impacts on LHRs and what international law has to say about the issues that arise. The human rights approach and the concept of continuing violations of human rights undergird this essay.
