Page 49 - 《客語及少數族群語言政策》附錄_少數語言法律

citizens of Catalonia have to have learned Catalan and Castilian and shall be entitled to use them.
In order to continue with this drive, it has moreover become essential for changes to be made to State and
European law, and to strengthen the policies of support and the relevant budgetary provisions.

IV. The contents and structure of this Act

This Act expresses the legal concepts of a people's own language and that of official language. Thus the
concept of Catalonia's own language applied to Catalan commits the public authorities and institutions in
Catalonia to safeguard Catalan, to use it in a general manner and to promote its public use at all levels. The
concept of official language applied to Catalan and Castilian guarantees all citizens their subjective rights,
which are explicitly stated, to learn both languages, to be able to freely use them in all private and public
activities, to be served in the language of their choice in their relationships with the authorities and, gradually
and progressively, with all social agents who offer services to the public, and to not be discriminated against on
the basis of language. Bearing in mind these principles, the Act governs the use of both official languages in
Catalonia, and establishes measures to and promote the use of Catalan in order to achieve its normal use and
promotional measures to guarantee its presence in all spheres.
In the official and administrative field, this Act stipulates that Catalan authorities and institutions shall generally
use Catalan, without affecting the right of citizens to address them in the official language of their choice, and
declares the full validity of all public and private documents in either of the two official languages, totally
indifferently one from the other, in all spheres, including the State and Judicial Authorities as well as public
registries.

As regards education, this Act guarantees to all the population full proficiency in both languages, and at the
same time, it guarantees that students shall not be discriminated against, nor separated into different groups,
on the grounds of language; all this is stated while maintaining the joint linguistic system applied under the
1983 Act, and in accordance with jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court. Furthermore, it establishes
measures to promote university education in Catalan.
In the field of the media, and within the framework of the Generalitat's responsibilities, it governs the use of
Catalan in radio and television station broadcasts, so as to guarantee the presence of the Catalan language in
radio and television programs, and lays down measures to promote the written press. As regards cultural
industries, it maintains and reinforces the promotional measures already established by the Act on linguistic
normalization in Catalonia for the cinema, books, music and entertainment, and includes references to
computer science, telecommunication networks and linguistic engineering products, which have become the
basis for processing information in all fields.

As regards the socio-economic field, it adopts measures to regulate the presence of Catalan and to promote its
use in all fields where, for market or other reasons, they are not adequately guaranteed. Thus public
companies, licensees and public services shall become active agents in the process of normal linguistic use in
order to guarantee consumers' linguistic rights. The aim is to progressively achieve that both languages are
treated equally in the economic world as all citizens in Catalonia acquire full knowledge of Catalan, and always
by means of social agreements sought by the Generalitat.

Finally, this Act acknowledges, protects and promotes education and the use of Aranese in the Aran valley,
with reference to Act 16 of 13th July 1990, concerning the special treatment of the Aran valley, and with full
respect for the powers of the institutions of the Aran valley.

This Act offers guidelines for citizens, only creating obligations for the authorities and certain companies,
should this be required, due to the nature of their activity being public services and in order to safeguard
citizens' linguistic rights. Therefore, only civil servants and the aforementioned companies may become subject
to administrative action, according to the sectoral laws in force, should they breach the obligations set forth in
this Act.
As regards the structure, this Act consists of thirty-nine articles, and eight additional, three transitory and three
final provisions. The articles are distributed in seven chapters, which govern the general principles (preliminary
chapter), institutional use (chapter I), place and personal names (chapter II), education (chapter III), the mass
media and cultural industries (chapter IV), socio-economic activity (chapter V), and the institutional stimulus
49