Language Rights and Immigrants: Exploring the notion of language- based discrimination

Abstract

This article reevaluates the international law principle of non-discrimination based on language, and its application to persons belonging to immigrant communities.  The article criticizes the dichotomy between tolerance-oriented language rights and promotion-oriented language rights. As an alternative, the article suggests that a substantive approach to equality in the enjoyment of basic human rights could give rise to a duty to accommodate the language of immigrants, when the absence of accommodations results in the denial of  human rights.