COLLECTIVE LINGUISTIC RIGHTS, ENDANGERED LANGUAGES AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: AN INTERNATIONAL LEGAL PERSPECTIVE

International Law envisages collective linguistic rights. Such rights are held by linguistic groups in order to ensure the survival of their languages and to transmit these languages to future generations. While the survival of dominant languages such as English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese etc., is not under threat, the same cannot be said of countless lesser known languages of non-dominant groups. For the latter languages, merely recognizing the collective right of non-dominant groups to their use in diverse domains is not enough for their survival, nor are the positive measures accompanied by "escape clauses" to be taken by States under relevant international instruments. Focusing on indigenous peoples, this paper examines the current international legal regime for the protection of collective linguistic rights of non-dominant groups. With the precarious situation in which indigenous languages find themselves in mind, the author makes an attempt to answer why the current international regime is failing and proposes possible ways to make the regime more effective. (C) 2020 Published by European Publisher.