Fourth Report-Complaint to the Council of Europe

Allegation sent to the European Committee for Regional or Minority Languages

The Advisory Council of Lawyers for Asturian
Translated from asturian: Birgitta Al-Issa and Félix Fernández
DATE: 30/04/08

This allegation also aviable in:

Asturian (AST)

1. INTRODUCTION.

During the year 2007,  Aconceyamientu de Xuristes pol Asturianu sent to the Council of Europe, through its Directorate General for Legal Matters (The Administration of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages), three reports denouncing the neglect and abandonment which the Asturian language suffers inside the Kingdom of Spain: “Legal Opinion on the Linguistic Conflict in Asturias”, “The Asturian Language in Education” and “The Death Throes of a European Language”.  This last one -which is attached to this as a reminder- picked up in its note (*4) on a series of state actions which were clearly discriminatory to the Asturian language, as classified according to the articles of the European Charter of Regional or Minority Languages which they are violating.

This report closed in the month of October 2007, but since then the Spanish state continued to legislate against the Asturian language, this being the reason why it seems necessary to us to expand it with reference to the new aggressions, which gives rise to this fourth report-complaint against the Spanish State, submitted to the Council of Europe.

2. ACCOUNT WITH COMMENTS ON THE DISCRIMINATORY NORMS AGAINST THE ASTURIAN LANGUAGE APPROVED BY THE SPANISH STATE BETWEEN THE DATES OF OCTOBER 10^TH 2007 AND MARCH 30^TH 2008.

All these are directed against the objectives and principles proclaimed in Article 7 in the European Charter of Regional or Minority Languages, in its number 1, especially under letters c)- a promise, signed by the Spanish state, to protect the Asturian language-, d) a promise, signed by the Spanish state, to further and/or  encourage the use of oral and written Asturian in public and private life-, f)- a promise, signed by the Spanish state, to provide adequate means for the teaching and study of the Asturian language at all levels- and g)- the promise, signed by the Spanish state, to provide the means which  allows speakers who live in the area in which it is used, to learn the Asturian language if they so desire-, and 2 (“The parts which we promise to eliminate, where this has not been done, are every distinction, exclusion, restriction, and unjustified preference with respect to a regional or minority language whose objective is to discourage or endanger the sustenance or development thereof”),beside which  they are in total violation, according to the only possible interpretation with reference to the ratification instrument prepared by the Spanish state, with the following Articles of the Charter:

Article 8:

     - Act 45/2007, of December 13^th (Official Gazette of December 14^th) on the sustainable development of the countryside.

Article 32.b): In order to promote the integration of established immigrants in the countryside, through a programme for sustainable development, the knowledge of their respective regional languages will be facilitated, except the Asturian one.

- Royal Decree 1467/2007, of November 2d (Official Gazette of November 6^th), by which the structure of the “bachillerato” (academic stream in Spanish secondary schools) is established, and the minimum teaching level is set.

In contrast with the “bachillerato” students in other autonomous regions which have their own language, it is not required of those in Asturias that they know the regional language, not even if the material is local(Article 6.2)  On the same line, the Principality of Asturias is the only autonomous region with its own language in which the central administration imposes 65% of the curriculum of the “bachillerato” (Article 9.3) and in which it is obligatory for academic records and forms to be written in Castilian (first  additional provision).

- Royal Decree 107/2008, of February 1^st (Official Gazette of February 20^th), by which the national catalogue of professional qualifications is supplemented, while establishing the seven qualifications for the professional category in administration and management.

In the section “Competency unit 1, level 2” the only one that contains a reference to regional languages,  Asturian is discriminated from the others,  separating it from the curriculum.

- Order ECI/3854/2007, of December 27^th (Official Gazette of December 29^th), by which the prerequisites for the verification of those official university degrees are established, which allow a person to practise the profession of  Kindergarten Teacher.

Attachment, section 12:  Kindergarten Teachers who study at a university situated in a region with its own language, have to obtain level C 1 in their knowledge of it, except those who do so at an Asturian university, where no knowledge of the regional language is required.  It is self-evident that if the teachers do not know the language of the region, they will not be able to teach it to their pupils either.

- Order ECI/3857/2007, of December 27^th (Official Gazette of December 29^th), by which the prerequisites for the verification of those official university degrees are established, which allow a person to practice the profession of Primary School Teacher.

Attachment, section 5: The same discrimination against the Asturian language as in the case of Kindergarten Teachers.

- Plans for educational curricula:  The Government of the Principality of Asturias presented in the month of March, 2008, two plans by Decree, regulating the curricula of the teaching for the   Kindergarten  and the Bachillerato, which violate the provisions of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.  Thus:

The plan to regulate Kindergarten education:  It is a disguised copy of the Order ECI/3960/2007 by the Ministry of Education, produced for monolingual territories.  In consequence it leaves pupils in Asturias- a land with a traditional regional language, bable or Asturian, and a second language of its own native to the district of Navia-Eo, the Galician Asturian, which coexist, in conflict with the imported Castilian- without any chance of finding their own language in the six first years of their schooling.  This constitutes a public authority’s clear, lamentable and intolerable contempt of the mandate of an international treaty, the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which in the terms of ratification by the Spanish state contains the promise that all of its authorities would “plan a guaranteed preschool education” in Asturian “without detriment to the teaching of the official language of the state”.  It is the case that it not only fails to comply with the ratification but complies with none of the numbers in the above mentioned Article 8 of the Charter, an international treaty which does no more than apply the recommendations brought forward by UNESCO (“The use of the vernacular in education”, created by the ad hoc Committee of Experts, in Paris, 1953, and “Education in a multilingual world” of the year 2003, published in the same city and by a similar group of experts), the one by UNICEF (The world state of childhood, presented in New York in 1999), and the one by Appel and Muysken (Bilingualism and contact with the language,  1996).

On the one hand, the plan of the Decree to regulate the curriculum for the “Bachillerato”, denies the Asturian language another condition in that it is  part of the optional material, by which the plan fails to comply with Article 8.1.c) of the   European Charter for  Regional or Minority Languages, in which Spain already promised, in agreement with the instrument of ratification, “to plan the measures needed for guaranteed secondary education in the respective regional or minority languages” among which  “those which protect and enshrine in the territories where they are traditionally spoken”, as is the case with Asturian (Article 4 in  Public  General Act 7/1981 of the Statutes of Autonomy in Asturias).  On the other hand, in Article 9.4 of the plan, the freedom for the student body to choose as optional material  Asturian  Language and Literature (literature from where?) is a false recognition, because choosing it does not help them if by the department’s criteria those who do so form an” insufficient number of students to constitute a group”, an arbitrariness which clashes with the mandate of the Principality of Asturias contained in Articles 9 and 10 of Act 1/1998 of the Principality of Asturias.  This is so in the sense that it “will assure” and “will guarantee the teaching of bable/Asturian at all levels and grades”, without the obstacles of numbers, nor the submission to the caprices (called “objective criteria” in the plan) of any politician.

Article 9.

- Act 24/2007 ,of October 9^th (Official Gazette of October 10^th) which modifies Act 50/1981 of December 30^th, regulating the General Statute of the Ministry of Public Prosecutions.

Article 64.7: In terms of knowledge of the Asturian language, unlike the other regional languages, it is not given a position of validity in the prosecuting process, and if lack of consideration is shown towards the citizens before they apply to be able to defend themselves in court in their Asturian language, this is not considered an offence (if this happens with a person speaking another regional language, it is classified as a grave offence).

- It seems opportune to remember at this point that the state never fulfilled its obligation (Article 9.3 in the Charter) to publish the most important legislative texts, not even the Spanish Constitution, violating also its final provision (“It will be published also in the other languages of Spain”).

Article 10.

- Public General Act 12/2007, of October 22d (Official Gazette of October 23d), the disciplinary regime of the Guardia Civil (an armed, mainly rural police force).

In agreement with what is stated in Article 8.38, the refusal of an official to process a complaint made in Asturian has no juridical consequences.  Nevertheless, the refusal to process a complaint made in any other regional language constitutes a grave offence, while not very serious or criminal.

- Act 39/2007, of November 19^th (Official Gazette of November 20^th) on   military  careers.

According to its provisions, the Spanish military is obliged, in its official       contacts with the citizenry, to permit the use of all regional languages, except the Asturian one.

- Royal Decree 1519/2007 of November 16^th (Official Gazette of December 4^th) by, which the minimum knowledge and prerequisites are established for working as a professional sailor on fishing ships.

Article 4: The Professional License of a Marine Fisherman is issued in all regional languages except the Asturian one.

- Royal Decree 1545/2007, of November 23d (Official Gazette of November 30^th), by which the National Cartographic System is regulated.

Article 23.3: Unlike what is established for all other regional languages, in the Basic Geographic Nomenclature of Spain, there is no reason for the geographically referenced indicators for the Principality of Asturias to be in the Asturian language.

- Order PRE/358/2007, of December 10^th (Official Gazette of December 11^th), establishing the departments of the State Agency for the Administration of Taxation and assigning them their functions and powers.

Article 3.k): The Department for the Organization, the Planning and the Institutional Relations of the State Agency for the Administration of Taxation has to guarantee the free use of all regional Spanish languages, except the Asturian one.

Article 11.

- Act 55/2007, of December 28^th (Official Gazette of December 29^th), on cinema.

Any cinematographic work, whose original is in a regional language, can be considered as having Spanish nationality, but not if it is in Asturian (Article 5.1)

Businesses cannot distribute in Spain cinematographic works dubbed or subtitled in Asturian, but can do so in other regional languages (Article 14.2).

European Union fiction films, whose original version is subtitled in Asturian, do not count in the double calculation of the screen quota.  If they are in another regional language, they do.(Article 18.2)

Films that use the Asturian language in their original version, in contrast with what is established for those made in another regional language, cannot access grants for the production (Article 24.1.a), nor additional assistance for documentary films (Article 26.2.b); nor can they receive the cinematographic  promotion and protection given to Spanish minority languages (Article 36).

The Autonomous Region of the Principality of Asturias, unlike all other regions with their own language, cannot benefit from grants for the furthering of the production, distribution, showing or promotion of audiovisual works (6^th additional provision.

The chance that RTVE (Spanish State Broadcasting Corporation) or other producers of television should establish agreements with the General Administration of the State in order to develop programmes for the premiering and showing of film made in the Asturian language is hindered, while it is favoured in the case of film made in any other language of the state of Spain.

- Act 56/2007, of December 28^th (Official Gazette of December 29^th) on measures  toactivate the real of modern media..

Article 1.3: The structured formats of electronic bills can be viewed in all regional languages except Asturian.

Article 18.3: Along with promoting the translation of the codes of conduct, the Act makes an effort to disseminate it in the regional languages, except in Asturian.

First additional provision: The “.es” protects all regional languages except Asturian.  In consequence, the assigning authority   will, within the term of three months, do nothing to assign these two characters (1.1 and h) as differentiated from those included in the English alphabet, while this will be done for the other regional languages.

Additional provision 12: The proclaimed furtherance of linguistic pluralism in the use of the new technologies on the part of the Public Administration does not pertain to the Asturian language.

Article 13.

- Royal Decree 231/2008, of February 5^th (Official Gazette of February 25^th), by which the System of Consumer Arbitration is regulated.

3. Attachment.

III Report-Complaint to the Council of Europe: The death throes of an european language.

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