Silvia Iorgulescu
International key documents relating to linguistic rights of minorities
Language is an identity vehicle, a part of a system that makes it possible for a community to express itself and a vector of cultural, social and political influence. Also, language is an indisputable factor of cohesion within a minority, through which common ascendancy of community members is asserted and own cultural and historical features are perpetuated. Thus, the need to protect this factor of preserving identity features through specific international instruments becomes obvious nowadays. However, the path towards awareness of this need to protect and promote the conceptual universe of language has proved to be a long one.
Keywords: language, minority, minority language, language rights