Acceso usuarios
Joaquim Triadú i Vila-Abadal
The Spanish Constitution of 1978 and the Catalan Statute of Autonomy guarantee the use and protection of regional languages. In the legal arena, provision has also been made for citizens to be attended to and to testify in he official regional language of their respective autonomous communities. Nevertheless, Spanish continues to be used in a majority of situations because doing so avoids problems. The Ministry of Justice and the Generalitat (Autonomous Government) of Catalonia have publicly declared their intention to change this state of affairs and make it possible for the use of the regional languages to be an everyday occurrence. The Charter (1988) is an international convention whose objective is to protect the languages of territories located inside states having a majority language and to promote the use of the minority language at every level. Each state decides upon the level of protection and dissemination given to these languages. In the legal sphere, the Charter provides that the judge may decide if the use of one of those languages may hinder the proper administration of justice. In the case of Spain, the Charter is not relevant, since Spanish legislation envisages greater powers for the regional languages [than does the Charter]. Spain ratified the Charter in 1992, but the European Council was not notified of the ratification until 2001. Sixteen of the 44 countries of Europe have already ratified it. The remaining countries are in different phases of the ratification process. Different states show different levels of sensitivity to regional languages. Spain is one of the countries with the most advanced legislation, but in the effort to ensure a greater presence of regional languages, many questions remain unresolved.
