Language & Territorial Rights in Belgium & Switzerland

1. Language & Territorial Rights in Belgium & Switzerland

2. Belgium • atrilingual federal state, with French, Dutch and German as the three official languages of the federation

3. 10 provinces • Flanders :Dutch-speaking • Wallonia :French speaking • The Brussels-Capital Region, officially bilingual, is a mostly French-speaking enclave within the Flemish Region • German-speaking minority to the east Flanders Wallonia

4. Languages • Three linguistic communities: the Dutch-speaking Flemish, the French-speaking Francophones (including the Walloons), and the German-speaking Germanophones. • Four linguistic regions: • Dutch-language in the north • the bilingual region (French-Dutch) of Brussels in the centre • French-language in the south • German-language in the east

5. Three Communities in One Federation German-speaking community French speaking community Flemish speaking community Each of these communities has a parliament and a government. Jurisdiction over language matters lies jointly with these communities and with the federal parliament. However article 129 of the Belgian constitutions place restrictions on these communities powers in terms of language: communities can regulate language use only in the areas of administration, education and private-sector operations community jurisdiction is limited to each one's linguistic borders, to their unilingual institutions in Brussels and, for the Flemish community, to its "Flemish houses"  whilst the German-speaking community's powers are even more limited and apply only to schooling.

6. -The territorial jurisdiction of the French-speaking community extends only to unilingual Francophone institutions. • -The Flemish community oversees unilingual Dutch institutions in the Flemish region and in the region of Brussels. • The territorial jurisdiction of the German-speaking community coves the German-language district however the German-speaking community does not have a regional council, and only since 1997 has it been able to issue language decrees, and only in the area of education. Administrative and private-sector matters are federal-government ruled also for the German-speaking community.

7. Belgian Federal authority • -Belgium's federation applies territorial unilingualismin Wallonia, in Flanders and in the German-speaking region, but it resorts to Franco-Dutch bilingualism in the Brussels region. Specifically, the federal administration outside of Brussels works in only one language (French in Wallonia, Dutch in Flanders). • But the Brussels-based federal civil service must be bilingual and thus provide services in both French and Dutch. Under article 19 of an act adopted on July 18, 1966 and governing Belgium's entire linguistic and administrative system, all local services in Brussels-Capital must use the same official language (Dutch or French) as the client or citizen being served. 

8. However there are no bilingual documents in Belgium; indeed, even in the Brussels region, all documents are unilingual, but you can ask for them in either French or Dutch. • There are no bilingual documents in Belgium; indeed, even in the Brussels region, all documents are unilingual, but you can ask for them in either French or Dutch. • Whilst the ministry of justice, the ministry of the interior (or domestic affairs) and the ministry of defence are actually split into two entities, one French-speaking and one Dutch-speaking.

9. Unilingualism in Belgium’s regions and communities -Belgium's entire network of regional and community administrations is unilingual: French for Wallonia and the Francophone community; Dutch for the Flemish community; and German for the Germanophone community.  -Unilingualism is again the working policy for Belgium's community governments, regional governments and federal government. -However there are two governments which practise bilingualism which are the federal government in the Brussels-Capital region, and the government of the Brussels region itself.

10. Drawbacks of Belgium’s language system The three main drawbacks are that; it essentially prevents citizens of the two principal linguistic communities from using their own language in the other half of the country. the territorial-rights model neglects the needs of any minority living in a region or territory recognized as belonging to a specific linguistic group.  even if the territorial separation of languages guarantees a certain linguistic peace in a given region, it leads to the assimilation of individuals who don't speak the same language.

11. Success of Belgium’s language system • -Despite the Belgian model's imperfections, in the areas known as "flexible" communes (where certain local services are provided in the other language) and in the bilingual Brussels-Capital region, the three-community and three-region model (based on territorial rights) has worked at various levels. • One advantage of territorial rights is the security they provide to minority groups, which become majorities under this formula. • Also fewsovereign linguistic communities of this kind exist in the world. Indeed, only community governments manage language and culture, Belgium's central government having stayed completely out of these areas. In other nations, linguistic groups with such broad prerogatives are few and far between.

12. Language & Territorial Rights in Switzerland

13. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 23 ‘cantons’ • Each canton contains one or more official languages • There are 19 unilingual cantons, 3 bilingual cantons and one trilingual canton

14. Official Languages • Article 70 of the Swiss federal constitution states there are four official languages: German, French, Italian and Romansh when the confederation is dealing with Romansh speaking citizens. (This makes Romansh an official regional language of the trilingual Grisons canton) Linguistic Landscape: 63.7% Germaphones – Speak a variety of ‘Swiss-German’ (schweizerdeutsch) but write in standard/high German20.4% Francophones – Speak and write in Standard French6.5% Italophones – 80% speak a dialect and very local variety of Italian, and write in standard Italian0.5% Romansh – 5 varieties that are all intelligible with one another8.9% Allophones

15. Linguistic Territoriality 4 key principals of Swiss constitutional law: • Equality among languages • Citizens Freedom in matters of language use • Language territoriality • Protection of minority languages

16. Switzerland has four regions that can be considered unilingual. Even in the canton of Fribourg where there are 2 official languages, the linguistic borders are upheld and the boundary is recognised by Swiss citizens. • Federal and cantonal authorities must never alter the country's recognized linguistic borders, and supremacy of linguistic territorial separation is placed above all else. • These linguistic borders are established by the cantonal authorities rather than the federal government.

17. Federal Authority All of the official languages can be used in federal parliament. Members of parliament can choose which of the official languages they wish to speak. Germanophones form a majority of the house, therefore German used most often. Francophone members generally use French. Italian members rely on either German or French. Romansh is rarely used, however it is not banned.

18. The federal parliament provides a translation service for German, French and Italian. • However one is not provided for Romansh, therefore those who use Romansh will not be understood by their colleagues who do not speak Romansh. • All laws are enacted and published in German, French and Italian. Legislation is often drafted in German, then translated to French, and then into Italian. Since 1988 some laws have been translated into Romansh.

19. The Swiss government is nationally trilingual, and regionally quadrilingual. Switzerland also distinguishes between the centralized federal administration in the country’s capital, and the decentralized federal administration spread through the country’s cantons. • The central administration is trilingual nationally: meaning it responds in the language used by each citizen. They also use Romansh when addressing the Romansh • However when it comes to dealings with the decentralized federal administration office (outside of the capital), citizens are subject to the principles of territoriality. Switzerland’s decentralized administration offices operate solely in the language in the canton (or languages if the canton is bilingual). Therefore Germanophones cannot demand German in a French speaking City such as Geneva. • The Language used for education remains a cantonal jurisdiction.

20. References • https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2128.html • http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab=table&language=en&pcode=tps00001&tableSelection=1&footnotes=yes&labeling=labels&plugin=1 • http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2012/01/weodata/weorept.aspx?sy=2009&ey=2012&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=124&s=NGDPD%2CNGDPDPC%2CPPPGDP%2CPPPPC%2CLP&grp=0&a=&pr.x=68&pr.y=11 • http://www.webcitation.org/5kwPxLurr • http://www.dglive.be/EN/Desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-1263/2264_read-27181/ • http://www.eubusiness.com/europe/belgium/belgium-country-profile/ Sam Ashfield, Adam Chin, Jack Larkins, Maurice Stokes