Equalizing the Use of Language: A View to Kosovo Law’s Guarantees Upon Minority Languages

ABSTRACT

Kosovo through its Constitution proclaimed itself a multiethnic society, while attributing to its institutions the burden to preserve the ethnic minorities’ identity, including their linguistic individuality. With a view to that, Kosovo authorities issued the necessary laws to make multiethnicity a ‘living principle’, thus establishing sufficient consociational elements in the Kosovo’s legal system. With a view to that, this paper will make a review upon the Kosovo Law on the Use of Languages, and shall view the latter toward the principles set, by both, Ahtisaari Plan’s provisions and Kosovo Constitution’s provisions. Hence, apart from providing a critical evaluation, the paper is aimed at displaying the guaranteed mechanisms and principles employed by the law concerned for either upholding or assuring the use of language by ethnic minorities.

Keywords:

Democracy, Conventions, Minorities rights, Ahtisaari Plan, Languages, Equality, Ethnic minorities, Identity, Consociational Democracy.