The Protection of Minorities and Minority languages. The Case of Friulian and Friulian Minority

Viola Vicario Master thesis MA Euroculture 
6 
 
Introduction 
 
1. Introduction 
In a Europe that is transforming its linguistic diversity and multilingualism in one of its 
strategic goals – as evidenced, among other things, by the creation, on the 1
st
 of January 
2007 of a European Commisioner for Multilingualism – the region Friuli-Venezia 
Giulia can play a key role, thanks to its linguistic situation, which is unique in Europe. 
Only in this region, in fact, we can find a centuries-old coexistence, on the same 
territory, of the three main European linguistic families: Latin (Friulian and Italian), 
Germanic (German communities) and Slavic (Slovene minority).  
In recent years, there have been numerous legislative and administrative 
interventions, aimed at protecting a particularly complex cultural heritage, differentiated 
for history, number of speakers and protection needs. 
On the border areas with Slovenia, there are 32 Slovene-speaking municipalities. 
This national minority, in the last decade, has reached high forms of regional and State 
legal recognitions, not only with the law 482/99, but in particular with a specific law for 
the Slovene minority (law 38/2001), which includes specific global measures: the 
names or their reset in Slovene, the right to use the language in the relations with the 
administration, the place names and the school; it establishes a “Joint institutional 
Committee for the problems of the Slovene minority”; it encourages the cooperation 
between border population and the minority and its cultural institutions, in a climate of 
mutual exchange, to promote and implement uniform policies on neighboring 
territories. More recently, the Regional Law 26/2007 integrated the State legislation, 
defining the fundamental basic lines of intervention of the Region in favor of the 
minority. 
The German communities of Friuli-Venezia Giulia are present in five municipalities 
of the province of Udine (Sauris, Timau, Tarvisio, Pontebba and Malborghetto). The 
region has promoted, with the Regional Law 20/99, specific actions for the protection 
and enhancement of the Germanic community, providing funding for cultural activities 
and especially for linguistic and cultural clubs and associations present in the five 
municipalities where there are German-speaking citizens. The recognition of the 
German minority in the region has been completed in 2009, with the approval of the 
Regional Law 20/2009, entitled “Provisions for the protection and promotion of the 
German-speaking minority in Friuli-Venezia Giulia”.
Viola Vicario Master thesis MA Euroculture 
7 
 
The Friulian minority is the most important one, because, numerically, it is the 
largest one (175 municipalities in the provinces of Udine, Gorizia and Pordenone), it 
has a language that is not official in other states, it he has undergone a strong 
minorization and expressed a strong demand for protection and self-government. This 
has led to different protection measures (at a national level: Law 482/99; at a regional 
level: 15/96 and 29/2007) and to an active language policy. In this case, it is very 
interesting the comparison (and often the conflict) between the different levels of 
protection (European, national and regional): that's why I chose to handle it in this 
thesis, with the objective to describe and analyze the situation and to find some 
objective and subjective peculiarities. 
 
The thesis is divided in five chapters: 
 First chapter (“Minority, minorities and minority protection”): it presents the 
theoretical background for the themes of the thesis. 
 Second chapter (“Friuli and Friuli-Venezia Giulia): it includes a geographical and 
historical introduction to Friuli (and to the “official” Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region) 
and a description of its institutional and linguistic situation. 
 Third chapter (“Friulian and Friulians”): it includes a description of Friulian 
language, between culture, politics and identity. 
 Fourth chapter (“The legal protection of minorities and the case of Friulian 
minority”). It is divided in three parts: the European dimension (the different phases 
of the European policies on minorities, the main documents for their protection and 
the monitoring of Italian situation) the Italian dimension (the art. 6 of the 
constitution, the extra-constitutional protection of some minorities, the laws 482/99 
and 38/2001) and the Friulian dimension (the art. 3 of its Special Statute and the 
regional laws 15/96 and 29/2007). 
 Fifth chapter (“Friulian language and Friulian community”). It is divided in three 
parts: the public institutions, associations and private entities for Friulian language; 
the situation of Friulian language (in schools, public administration, media, music, 
cinema and theatres) and the results of socio-linguistic research.
Viola Vicario Master thesis MA Euroculture 
8 
 
2. Literary Review 
 
2.1 Primary sources
1
 
 The European and international level: the first document on minorities and minority 
protection has been the First Arfè resolution (1981) of the European Council. Other 
important documents (in this case of the Council of Europe) are the European 
Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (Strasbourg, 5.11.1992)
2
 and the 
Framework Convention For the Protection of National Minorities (Strasbourg, 
01.02.1995)
3
. Finally the main documents of the European Union on the theme are: 
the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (which never came into force), the 
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (Nice, 2000) and the Treaty 
on European Union
4
 (Lisbon, 2009; in particular the article 2).  
 The Italian level: the first document which explicitly mention the minorities and 
their protection is the Italian constitution (art. 6). Then, for more than 50 years, there 
is no specific law (apart for the extra-constitutional protection of the few minorities 
with a king state which forced Italy to act in this way). Finally, between the end of 
the XX century and the beginning of the XXI century, Italy approved a general law 
for the protection of all the historical minorities in Italy (law 482/99
5
) and a specific 
law for the protection of Slovene minority in Friuli-Venezia Giulia (law 38/2001). 
 The regional level: the first reference to the minorities is in the art. 3 of the Special 
Statute of the Region Friuli-Venezia Giulia (1963). There is a reference to the 
Friulian culture in the Regional law 68/81. While the Region approved, between the 
end of the XX century and the beginning of the XXI century, two specific laws for 
the protection of Friulian language and Friulian minority: the law 15/96
6
 and the law 
29/07
7
.  
 
 
 
                                                                   
1
 For more information about the primary sources, see the chapter 4 of this thesis. 
2
  http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/Html/148.htm  
3
 http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/Treaties/Html/157.htm 
4
 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2008:115:0013:0045:en:PDF 
5
 http://usefoundation.org/view/336 
6
 http://lexview-int.regione.fvg.it/fontinormative/xml/xmllex.aspx?anno=1996&legge=15#  
7
 http://lexview-
int.regione.fvg.it/fontinormative/xml/xmlLex.aspx?anno=2007&legge=29&fx=lex&db=DBC
Viola Vicario Master thesis MA Euroculture 
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2.2 Secondary sources 
 The European level: The lawyer Marco Dugnani, in the article Archivio
8
 presents 
the situation of the protection of minorities in the different European states (not only 
of the European Union) and makes a comparison with the Framework Convention, 
presenting the positive and the negative aspects and concluding that it has codified 
the sovereign equality, the territorial integrity and the political independency of the 
single states; for this reason, the national minorities, without a concrete legal 
protection, are forced to appeal to the national legal system or to the European Court 
for the human rights. Andrea Cofelice, in his article “L‟azione del Consiglio 
d‟Europa per la protezione delle minoranze nazionali”
9
, presents the laws, bodies 
and the main initiatives of the Council of Europe for the protection of national 
minorities and emphasizes the right to education. He concludes that the Framework 
Convention asks the states to encourage (through the school system) the tolerance, 
the dialogue, the social cohesion and the mutual understanding between the different 
groups and communities settled in their territory, because this is (or had to be) the 
final objective of education (article 26 paragraph 2 of the Universal Declaration of 
the Human Rights
10
). According to the European Agency for Fundamental Rights
11
, 
in the period from 2008 and June 2010 there has been a persistent phenomenon of 
discrimination in many areas (employment, housing, healthcare and education, in 
particular) while it outlines some positive elements in other areas (religion freedom, 
participation in public life and use of minority languages, in particular).  
 The Italian level: Claudia Tavani, in her article “La protezione delle minoranze in 
Italia e il mancato riconoscimento della minoranza rom: ragioni e conseguenze”
12
, 
analyses the conditions of the the Roma population in Italy and describes the Italian 
legal system on the non-discrimination and protection of minorities, in the context 
                                                                   
8
 http://www.diritto.it/materiali/europa/dugnani3.html (accessed on the 24/07/2016) 
9
 http://unipd-centrodirittiumani.it/it/schede/Lazione-del-Consiglio-dEuropa-per-la-protezione-delle-
minoranze-nazionali/182 (accessed on the 24/07/2016) 
10
 “Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening 
of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and 
friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United 
Nations for the maintenance of peace.” 
(http://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Documents/UDHR_Translations/eng.pdf) (accessed on the 
24/07/2016).  
11
 European Agency for Fundamental rights, “Respect for and Protection of Persons Belonging to 
Minorities, 2008-2010”. (Accessed on the 24/07/2016). 
(http://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/1769-FRA-Report-Respect-protection-minorities-
2011_EN.pdf) 
12
 http://aei.pitt.edu/41204/1/2013_edap03.pdf (accessed on the 24/07/2016)
Viola Vicario Master thesis MA Euroculture 
10 
 
of the international law. It suggests the strategies to stop the discrimination and 
assure the integration of Roma and the full application of the international laws on 
human rights. Aline Sjerp (2008)
13
 analyzes the Italian case of minority language 
protection in the media, in particular the role that mass media can play in the 
preservation or weakening of minority languages. She explores some of the effects 
that different protective measures can have on the survival, status and economic 
conditions of the linguistic minority on the one hand, and the relationship with the 
state and the majority group on the other. She concludes that the protection of 
minority languages has always been a difficult topic in Italy: relatively few 
legislative texts relate to its numerous linguistic minorities. Protective measures 
usually concern only the French-, German-, Slovene-, and Ladin-speaking 
minorities who benefit from support from neighboring countries. Finally she 
suggests that to improve the situation of linguistic minorities in the mass media 
more commitment from the state and the regional authorities on the one hand and 
public broadcasting companies on the other is needed. 
 The regional level: Valeria Piergigli, in her article “La protezione delle lingue 
minoritarie in Friuli-Venezia Giulia”
14
, presents the Italian and regional laws for the 
protection of minorities and concludes that the protection and the valorization of the 
minority languages and of the subjective situations of the speakers must be assured, 
proportionally to the effective needs, without prejudices against those who do not 
recognize themselves in that communities and without evoking the regional 
specificity to obtain a reinforcement in the political and administrative autonomy. 
Francesco Palermo and Giulia Predonzani, in their article “La minoranza slovena in 
Italia: una tutela incompiuta”
15
, show how in Italy, the indigenous minorities of the 
Alps has a strong legal protection, but the Slovene one is the least protected, mainly 
for historical reasons. They conclude that the protection of the Slovene minority 
continues to be the product of the combination of different and non-directly 
connected aspects, and its development is always trolling for something else (often 
for its shadow).  
  
                                                                   
13
 Sierp, A., “Minority Language Protection in Italy: Linguistic Minorities and the media”, in JCER, 
2008, 4(4), 303-331. 
14
 http://www.coordinamentoadriatico.it/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=626&Itemid=40 
(accessed on the 24/07/2016) 
15
 http://www.balcanicaucaso.org/Temi/Diritti-umani/Minoranze/La-minoranza-slovena-in-Italia-una-
tutela-incompiuta-43277 (accessed on the 24/06/2016).