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Language rights in international humanitarian law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2010

Mala Tabory
Mala Tabory*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University
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Extract

War, more than peace, is likely to give rise to circumstances in which soldiers and civilians find themselves against their will in a setting where a foreign language is employed. In addition, they may be forced to have contact on their own territory with people using another tongue. Therefore in the context of war, the protection of basic language rights is perhaps even more crucial than in peacetime in easing the fate of those involved. One of the ways humanitarian law seeks to protect the victims of war is by guaranteeing their right to communicate in a language which they easily understand. The purpose of this study is to analyze linguistic rights in time of war.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of the Red Cross (1961 - 1997) , Volume 21 , Issue 223 , August 1981 , pp. 187 - 204
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 1981

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References

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N.B. This paper was written under a grant from the Dana Fund for International and Comparative Legal Studies. The author wishes to thank the Dana Corporation Foundation for its generous support, and the American Society of International Law for administering the grant.