In closing Buwan ng Wika, it bears to stress the critical importance of one’s native language/s like our Bikol—with English and Filipino/Tagalog—as a fundamental freedom and basic human right of each individual and linguistic community.
At the World Conference on Linguistic Rights in Barcelona, Spain, on 9 June 1996, institutions and non-governmental organizations from around the world adopted a “Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights.” At the heart of this declaration is a statement of general principles, thus:
General Principles
Article 7
1. All languages are the expression of a collective identity and of a distinct way of perceiving and describing reality and must therefore be able to enjoy the conditions required for their development in all functions.
2. All languages are collectively constituted and are made available within a community for individual use as tools of cohesion, identification, communication and creative expression.
Article 8
1. All language communities have the right to organize and manage their own resources so as to ensure the use of their language in all functions within society.
2. All language communities are entitled to have at their disposal whatever means are necessary to
ensure the transmission and continuity of their language.
Article 9
All language communities have the right to codify, standardize, preserve, develop and promote their linguistic system, without induced or forced interference.
Article 10
1. All language communities have equal rights.
2. This Declaration considers discrimination against language communities to be inadmissible,
whether it be based on their degree of political sovereignty, their situation defined in social, economic or other terms, the extent to which their languages have been codified, updated or
modernized, or on any other criterion.
3. All necessary steps must be taken in order to implement this principle of equality and to render it effective.
Article 11
All language communities are entitled to have at their disposal whatever means of translation into and from other languages are needed to guarantee the exercise of the rights contained in this Declaration.
Article 12
1. Everyone has the right to carry out all activities in the public sphere in his/her language, provided it is the language specific to the territory where s/he resides.
2. Everyone has the right to use his/her language in the personal and family sphere.
Article 13
1. Everyone has the right to acquire knowledge of the language specific to the territory in which s/he lives.
2. Everyone has the right to be polyglot and to know and use the language most conducive to
his/her personal development or social mobility, without prejudice to the guarantees established in this Declaration for the public use of the language specific to the territory.
Article 14
The provisions of this Declaration cannot be interpreted or used to the detriment of any norm or practice deriving from the internal or international status of a language which is more favourable to its use within the territory to which it is specific.
