ABSTRACT
Linguistic human rights (LHRs), especially in education, are one of the most necessary (but not sufficient) prerequisites for the maintenance of the world’s Indigenous/tribal, minority and minoritized (ITM) languages and communities. An unconditional right to mother tongue-based bi/multilingual education in non-fee state schools is the most important LHR if ITM languages and communities are not to remain seriously endangered. This chapter describes and analyses educational linguistic rights in international law, in the USA and in Canada. All Indigenous/tribal/First Nations languages in North America, with the possible exception of Inuit in Kalaallit Nunaat/Greenland, are seriously endangered and in need of revitalization. For them, education using the ITM children’s ancestors’ mother tongues in Indigenous mother tongue–based multilingual and revitalization immersion programs should be a linguistic human right. This right does not exist today, either in law or in practice—linguistic and cultural genocide continues. Attempts to counteract this genocide are presented.
