News From Celtic league
The date 24th April 2014 will be remembered by Celtic League activists in Cornwall as the day the United Kingdom Government unexpectedly announced that the Cornish would be included under the terms of the Framework Convention for the Protection for National Minorities (FCPNM).
Even though the Cornish have always regarded themselves as a distinct people in their own right, inclusion under the FCPNM gave ‘official’ justification for the many years of campaigning, sacrifice, resources and energy that organisations and individuals invested in attaining such an outcome. The Celtic League were among the first organisations to call for the inclusion of the Cornish in 1998 at the international ‘Minorities Course’ at Højskolen Østersøen, Aabenraa, Denmark when the Framework Convention came into effect. At that time the Council of Europe representative who made the announcement explained to Rhisiart Tal-e-bot, that it would be for the state governments to decide which minorities would be included under the Convention, but it took a further 16 years of campaigning for the UK government to make the positive decision in favour of the Cornish. The other Celtic ‘minorities’ – Irish, Manx, Scottish and Welsh – were included under the terms of the Convention, but the Cornish were always denied this right until last year, even though the UK Government officially recognised the Cornish language under the Charter for European and/or Minority Languages in 2002.
Now the FCNM Advisory Committee will be making their first visit to Kernow (Cornwall) in January 2016 to find out what has been done to uphold the terms of the Convention in respect of the Cornish. This is an opportunity for Cornish organisations to make a critique of the lack of implementation of the FCNM in respect of the Cornish.
Links:
FCPNM Advisory Committee:
https://www.coe.int/en/web/minorities/advisory-committee
Inclusion of the Cornish under the FCPNM:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cornish-granted-minority-status-within-the-uk
Rhisiart Tal-e-bot
Issued by: The Celtic News
23/11/15
THE CELTIC LEAGUE INFORMATION SERVICE
The Celtic League established in 1961 has branches in the six Celtic Countries. It promotes cooperation between the countries and campaigns on a range of political, cultural and environmental matters. It highlights human rights abuse, military activity and socio-economic issues
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