Language Rights of Newcomers and Indigenous Peoples in the African and European Contexts

Illia Klinytskyi; Ikechukwu Ugwu

doi:10.21697/2024.13.2.05

Published: 2025-02-27

Vol. 13 No. 2 (2024)

Language Rights of Newcomers and Indigenous Peoples in the African and European Contexts

Illia Klinytskyi

, Ikechukwu Ugwu

Polish Review of International and European Law

Section: Articles

https://doi.org/10.21697/2024.13.2.05

Abstract

This article briefly discusses the problem of language coexistence in two legal contexts: Africa and Europe. The study reveals a pattern of agenda of modern regional legal practices: (a) the separation of people by preferred languages, and (b) the public policy of assimilation. Moreover, we pose our counterarguments to the ‘game-changing’ idea of the culture of justification in law: colonialism powered by the legal culture of duties continues its existence in internal and external affairs. Based on Tove Skutnabb-Kangas’s ‘linguicism’, the article queries the extent to which both the European Union and the African Union have gone to protect the linguistic rights of the Indigenous, tribal minorities and minoritised children, including refugee minorities.

Keywords:

migrants, indigenous people, linguistic genocide, linguistic human rights, Africa, Europe

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Klinytskyi, I., & Ugwu, I. (2025). Language Rights of Newcomers and Indigenous Peoples in the African and European Contexts. Polish Review of International and European Law, 13(2), 143–187. https://doi.org/10.21697/2024.13.2.05

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Illia Klinytskyi

illia.klinytskyi@us.edu.pl
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7401-8233

Affiliation:

University of Silesia in Katowice Poland

Bio Statement (e.g., department and rank)

llia Klinytskyi is a DPhil candidate at the University of Silesia, Poland where he researches language rights of refugees. His contribution to this was funded entirely by the Polish National Science Centre, under grant number UMO-2022/45/N/HS5/00961.

Ikechukwu Ugwu

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0271-9364

Affiliation:

University of Silesia in Katowice Poland

Bio Statement (e.g., department and rank)

Ikechukwu Ugwu is a DPhil candidate at the University of Silesia, Poland, where he is researching the rights of indigenous peoples. His contribution to this was funded entirely by the Polish National Science Centre, under grant number UMO-2021/41/N/HS5/01227.