Treaties, Charters and Other Supranational Sources of Rights

Although some linguists cite language rights, it seems wiser to speak of human rights including language choice. For the last two centuries, there have been arguments for the language rights of minority groups, now increasingly recognized in many countries and regions. The Council of Europe favoured language learning; the European Union protects its national languages and calls on its members to recognize selected local minority languages. Languages of immigrants and refugees are usually excluded.