Oral Statement to the 6th session of the Working Group on Minorities, May 2000
Agenda Item 3 (b) to examine possible solutions to problems involving minorities
Greetings Mr. Chairman, members of the Working Group on Minorities.
The lingering effects of plantation slavery leave my people and me in a deprived state. We are deprived of our ‘mother tongue’. To date, we are denied and deprived of its use.
Article 2.1 of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to Minorities states: "Persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities have the right to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, and to use their own language, in private and in public, freely and without interference or any form of discrimination."
Today, the United States of America grants minorities the use of their own language. It has ratified Article 27, of the ICCPR, which declares: "In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, or to use their own language."
But we, the so-called African-Americans, in the aftermath of plantation slavery, cannot speak our own language. The U.S. Government took it away: it was forcibly taken away.
African-Americans originate from many parts of Africa encompassing hundreds of languages. Therefore, it would be impossible to implement the prayer of African-Americans regarding the loss of their ‘mother tongue’. The inability to implement a remedy makes it impossible to enforce any law. Our prayer is, however, for reparations. In this way America can address its legal wrong, and moral obligation. We will choose a language pleasing to us.
In conclusion, we ask that the Working Group on Minorities, in its report to the Sub-Commission, recommend that an expert be appointed to engage in dialogue with the U.S. Government. The urgent prayer of African-Americans for reparations should be the subject of this dialogue. Our recommendation is made in light of the fact that 40 million people are suffering this continuing legal wrong.
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