French Europe an Bure au for Le sse r Use d Language s EBLUL State me nts of EBLUL at the first Forum on Minority Issue s Ge nè ve , Palais de s Nations, 15 e t 16 dé ce mbre 2008 First statement on behalf of EBLUL Madam President of the Forum, Distinguished Independent Expert at the United Nations, Ladies and Gentlemen, Thank you for inviting EBLUL, an NGO that was established after the European Parliament's resolution ARFE was passed in 1982. We work to promote cultural and linguistic diversity in Europe, and for the rights of persons belonging to linguistic minorities. In Europe, such rights are guaranteed by two conventions in particular: the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. Yet we should highlight the fact that Greece and France are the only two countries in the European Union that have not ratified either of these two conventions. France – of which I am a national – hasn’t ratified article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights either, nor article 30 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Both articles recognise the rights of persons belonging to minorities. France in particular still relies on assimilationist approaches and policies towards peoples who are different, and officially refuses to recognise the rights of persons belonging to minorities. We would therefore like to express our sincere appreciation to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for its action and its recommendations to France last May. They were invoked by a senator from Brittany during debates in the French Parliament and we believe that they have strongly contributed to changing the minds of a number or pepole and to the adoption of the symbolic reference to regional languages as a French heritage in the French Constitution in July 2008 despite the government's intial opposition. Indeed, the government the emphasized that such recognition would not confer any rights. That is why we continue to find the he Committee's draft recommendations very relevant.