- 19 - Individual opinion of Rajsoomer Lallah (dissenting) 1. I am unable to agree with the finding of the Committee (paragraph 10.10) that there has been a violation of Article 26 the Covenant. 2. I agree that, since the State party has not provided any explanations on the merits of the complaint, the Committee must give due weight to the allegations of the authors. However, where inferences are to be drawn from the material provided by the authors, these inferences must clearly be legitimate and must be seen in the context of the complaints made. 3. The material allegations of the authors with regard to this particular complaint are set out in paragraph 3.4 and 3.5. The authors complain of a violation of Articles 26 and 27. They have also provided the Committee with a copy of the circular advising civil servants not to respond to official phone calls and correspondence in Afrikaans and to do so in the official language. It is perhaps useful to reproduce the circular so that it may be seen in its proper perspective. The circular reads as follows: Office of the Regional Commissioner Central Region 4 March 1992 CIRCULAR 1. It has come to the attention of the office of the Regional Commissioner that some Government officials handle (answer) official phone calls and correspondence in Afrikaans contrary, to the Constitutional provision that Afrikaans ceased to be the official language in this country after 21 March 1990. 2. While it is understood that Afrikaans was for a very long time the official language, it now officially enjoys the same status as other tribal languages. 3. All employees of the Government are thus advised to, in future, refrain from using Afrikaans when responding to phone calls and their correspondence. 4 All phone-calls and correspondence should be treated in English which is the official language of the Republic of Namibia. Thank you for your cooperation. N. Angermund Regional Commissioner Central 4. It is to be noted that the date of the circular is 4 March 1992 whereas the Covenant and the Optional Protocol came into force for Namibia on 28 February 1995. I proceed on the assumption, in the absence of any explanation from the State party, that the circular is still operative. 5. It is to be observed that the authors claim a violation of Article 27, in addition to Article 26. The Committee presumably found no violation of Article 27 which, inter alia, deals with the right of linguistic minorities not to be denied the right, in community with the other