Abstract
Human rights and their fortification through conventions and treaties are thought to be one of the greatest achievements of the previous century. A very important category of human rights is the Linguistic Human Rights (LHR). Linguistic Human Rights are connected to basic human rights and are of great importance in policy and planning. There have been numerous researches on language policies and in educational systems around the world. However, minority populations’ opinion, for example refugees’ opinion, is rarely represented in these researches. The present research aims at exploring the existing language policies in Greece in reference to minority languages. For the needs of this research six adult refugees participated in short semi-structured interviews. Even though participants seemed to be unaware of the term “Linguistic Human Rights”, most of them referred to the difficulty they have in exercising major human rights due to the monolingual policies that are followed in Greece. Taking into consideration the importance of Linguistic Human Rights and people’s need to use their mother language(s) in Greece, the last part of this research includes suggestions and ideas towards multilingual practices that come from different countries around the world.
Highlights
Human rights represent the set of ethical principles that determine human behavior
Even though participants seemed to be unaware of the term “Linguistic Human Rights”, most of them referred to the difficulty they have in exercising major human rights due to the monolingual policies that are followed in Greece
The term that describes the connection between linguistic rights and human rights is Linguistic Human Rights (LHR)
Summary
Human rights represent the set of ethical principles that determine human behavior. Human rights have been closely linked to immigrants for centuries. Language rights –or else said linguistic rights- is a very important category. Language rights are mentioned in the Articles of multiple international Conventions and Treaties since they are thought to influence human rights in all levels. The term that describes the connection between linguistic rights and human rights is Linguistic Human Rights (LHR). LHR refer to the language rights that are “basic for a dignified life” 109) and are connected to rights such as the right to quality education, the right to learn a foreign language, etc LHR refer to the language rights that are “basic for a dignified life” (Skutnabb-Kangas, 2008, p. 109) and are connected to rights such as the right to quality education, the right to learn a foreign language, etc
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