Marvelous Human Rights Rhetoric and Grim Realities: Language Rights in Education

Abstract

My question in this article is: Can a human rights (HRs) approach to language planning and policy promote educational equity for diverse student populations? After claiming that most of the present indigenous and minority education in the world fits the United Nations definitions of linguistic genocide, turning dominant languages into killer languages, I (a) assess to what extent governments show respect for HRs by ratifying HRs documents; (b) discuss some aspects of implementation, first presenting some government claims and then assessing government claims on national and immigrant minority education; and (c) present some more concrete examples, first discussing one state's performance (Sweden) and then finishing with an imagined example of a community trying to force the government to implement linguistic HRs in education. The sad conclusion is that so far, a HRs approach to language planning and policy has not been effective in promoting educational equity for diverse student populations.