CYIL 2010

MONITORING INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATIONS: THE CZECH REPUBLIC … governments may have that supporting minority identity and languages 13 could potentially end up strengthening tendencies towards separatism. As all other international treaties concluded within the framework of the Council of Europe, neither the Charter nor the Framework Convention provide for specific instruments for punishing violations of their rules: The pressure believed to be necessary to encourage States Parties to abide by their treaty obligations is accomplished by means of a dialogue between the monitoring mechanism and the authorities, by political measures at the Council of Ministers, and by the publishing of reports about the implementation of the provisions of the respective treaty. Theoretically, in the event of a serious violation of either instrument within the meaning of Article 3 of the Statute of the Council of Europe, the mechanism of Article 8 of the Statute could be applied. Additionally, the general rules of State responsibility for violation of international law are applicable in cases where such treaties are infringed. 3. Structure of the Charter The main body of the obligations under the Charter is divided into two categories of provisions: A general Part II sets down objectives and common principles for all minority and regional languages of a State Party to the Charter; these rules are applicable to all such languages spoken either within the territories in which the languages are used (territorial languages) or anywhere in the country in the case of non-territorial languages. The States Parties are obliged to base their policies, legislation and practice on the recognition of such languages as an expression of cultural wealth, to provide for resolute action to promote them, to facilitate and encourage their use in speech and writing, in private and public life, to provide appropriate forms and means for their teaching and study at all appropriate stages, and to promote their study and research at universities or equivalent institutions. Despite the very general wording of these obligations, they possess a real legal core – an obligation to take positive action in the sense of these provisions. Thus, obligations under the Charter would be deemed unfulfilled if a State cannot show that it has taken any concrete, monitorable action. If only formal, e.g. legislative, steps have been introduced, without any implementation measures, the pertinent obligation would be deemed to have been “formally fulfilled” only and the authorities would most probably be invited to supply additional information in the next monitoring cycle. An important limitation on these obligations in relation to the territorial languages consists of the specific situation of the languages concerned (Article 7, para. 1), which has to be taken into account by the States Parties. Interestingly, special limits concern the support for non-territorial languages: The measures for the support of these languages have to be determined in a flexible way, bearing in mind the needs and wishes, and respecting the traditions and characteristics, of the groups which use the languages concerned. 13 See, e.g. S. Trifunovska, The Case of the Baltic States, in: Minority Language Protection in Europe: Into a New Decade , Council of Europe Publishing, Strasbourg, 2010, p. 76.

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