Documento: lettera della Folc al Dipartimento di Stato nord-americano

16 Dicembre 2009

Departament d’Estat del Govern dels Estats Units

Senyors/Senyores,

Com a continuació de la nostra carta de 23 de desembre de 2008, en la qual comentàvem l’informe de 2007 sobre els Drets Humans del Departament d’Estat dels Estats Units, voldríem aprofitar l’ocasió per comentar l’informe corresponent a l’any 2008 en relació amb la protecció dels drets lingüístics dels ciutadans dels territoris en els quals la llengua catalana és cooficial (els territoris autònoms de Catalunya, País Valencia, Illes Balears).

Lamentem haver d’afirmar que aquest any no hem trobat cap millora en el seu report, com sí que la vam trobar en el seu report del 2007 respecte al del 2006. Més aviat hem trobat reincidències en els mateixos tòpics fomentats per fonts informatives poc objectives que per desgràcia molts catalans coneixem prou bé.



Permeti’ns comentar alguns paràgrafs del seu report, corresponents a l’apartat National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities, subapartat Other Societal Abuses and Discrimination:

“The controversy regarding official language policies continued, with complaints that current policies offend the right to an education in the “mother tongue”, or Castilian Spanish. In 2007 the ombudsman received approximately 100 complaints regarding Catalonia’s linguistic policies, and in March the “Platform in Defense of the Freedom of Choice in Language Election” filed a formal complaint against a school in the Basque Country. The school had refused to offer all classes in Spanish.

In October 2007 an estimated 5.000 writers, politicians, academicians, actors, and filmmakers signed a manifesto criticizing Cataluña Radio for firing a journalist for speaking in Castilian (Spanish), rather Catalan (Catalonia’s regional language).

According to security forces, 4.000 people participated in a demonstration in Barcelona on September 28 to protest the government’s linguistic policies and to defend the right to have school classes taught in Castilian”.

Ens ha sorprès que en un report del 2008 facin referència a fets del 2007, que ja havia comentat el report de l’any anterior i que ja va comentar la FOLC en la carta corresponent on dèiem que la qüestió de la periodista no era d’un tema de drets humans sinó una qüestió de perfil laboral inadequat.

El report fa referència a l’ombudsman, però no hi ha cap referència a les lleis catalanes, ni al govern de Catalunya, ni al Síndic de Greuges, ni sembla estar informat que la llengua catalana és parlada a molts altres territoris de l’Estat espanyol a més de Catalunya i fins i tot ignora el nom oficial de Catalunya Ràdio.

És evident que el report del 2008 només recull queixes en una sola direcció i malgrat parlar de drets humans sembla com si els catalanoparlants no tinguessin drets ni al nostre propi territori ni en el conjunt de l’Estat espanyol.

No els demanem  que descartin les seves fonts d’informació actuals; simplement els suggerim que obrin el seu ventall d’informació per poder contrastar les dades i així poder garantir una informació més objectiva, que no dubtem que és l’objectiu del report.

Estem convençuts que aquesta voluntat d’objectivitat i d’atenció a totes les opinions està en plena sintonia amb la política del President Obama i de la Secretària d’Estat Hillary Clinton, de sensibilitat envers la diversitat cultural i lingüística al món com a garantia de l’estabilitat política internacional.

Esperem que valoraran els nostres comentaris i suggeriments. A més, la nostra Federació  resta a la seva disposició per proporcionar tota aquella informació  sobre la llengua catalana i els drets i deures lingüístics dels catalans que els pugui ser d’utilitat.

Atentament,

Elisenda Romeu

Presidenta



Tortosa, 16 de desembre de 2009

State Department, USA Government

Dears Sirs,

Following our letter dated November 23rf, 2008, in which we commented upon the 2007 USA State Department’s Report on Human Rights, we would like to take the opportunity to comment upon the 2008 Report, related to the protection of the linguistic rights of the people that live in the territories in which Catalan language is co-official (the autonomous territories of Catalonia, Valencia and Balearic Islands).

Once again we regret having to point out that this year we have not found any improvement in your report, like we did in the 2007 report compared to the 2006. We have found reiterative comments to the same topics which originate in biased informative sources, something well known to us Catalans.

Allow us to comment on some paragraphs of your report, corresponding to the section National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities; subsection Other Societal Abuses and Discrimination:

“The controversy regarding official language policies continued, with complaints that current policies offend the right to an education in the “mother tongue”, or Castilian Spanish. In 2007 the ombudsman received approximately 100 complaints regarding Catalonia’s linguistic policies, and in March the “Platform in Defence of the Freedom of Choice in Language Election” filed a formal complaint against a school in the Basque Country. The school had refused to offer all classes in Spanish.

In October 2007 an estimated 5.000 writers, politicians, academicians, actors, and filmmakers signed a manifesto criticizing Cataluña Radio for firing a journalist for speaking in Castilian (Spanish), rather Catalan (Catalonia’s regional language).

According to security forces, 4.000 people participated in a demonstration in Barcelona on September 28 to protest the government’s linguistic policies and to defend the right to have school classes taught in Castilian”.

We are surprised that in the 2008 report you make reference to facts which took place in 2007, and which have been already commented in last year’s report. The FOLC had already discussed the issue on the corresponding letter, where we explained that the question of the journalist was not a topic of human rights but of inadequate professional profile.

The report makes reference of the Spanish ombudsman, but there’s not any reference to Catalan laws, or the Catalan ombudsman (“Síndic de Greuges”). To us it seems you lack information regarding Catalan language, since it is spoken in many more territories around the Spanish State apart from Catalonia. Unfortunately you also fail to mention the official name of Catalunya Ràdio.

It’s evident that in the 2008 report, you only seem to gather complaints in one direction and even though you speak about human rights it seems that Catalan speakers don’t have the right neither in our own territory nor in the rest of the Spanish state.

We are not asking you to reject your current sources of information; we just suggest that you gather comprehensive information sources to be able to contrast different sources and in that way, guarantee a more objective information, that we don’t doubt is the aim of the report.

We are convinced that this objective target and the attention to all the opinions, is in perfect accordance with President’s Barack Obama and the  State’s Secretary Hilary Clinton policy, sensible to the cultural and linguistic diversity in the world as a guarantee to the political international stability.

We hope that our comments and suggestions will be valued. Our Federation is at your disposal to offer any information on Catalan language and the linguistic rights and duties of the Catalan people that might be useful to you.

Yours sincerely

Elisenda Romeu

President of the FOLC (Federació  d’Organitzacions per la Llengua Catalana)



Tortosa, December 16th, 2009

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