Social Conditions for the Implementation of Linguistic Human Rights Through Multicultural Policies: The Case of the Kyrgyz Republic

Abstract

This paper begins with a survey of various theories of nationalism and the function of language in its constructs. The resurgence of nationalist projects in the last part of the 20th century is set within the context of globalisation which is seen as intensifying and encouraging the desire for a recognition of ethnic specificity. Within the successor states of the USSR, ethnic revivalist and nationalist tendencies threaten the transition to democracy. Data from Kyrgyzstan show how the Kyrgyz government is faced with the dilemma of correlating the need to respond to the desires of ethno-nationalists, the need to promote the institutional structures of a common public sphere and the need to act democratically in response to linguistic diversity. Linguistic rights enshrined in international law are proposed as the structure within which governments should act. Assimilationist and differentialist solutions are rejected in favour of a multicultural approach. The territorial model of multiculturalism as applied in Switzerland and Belgium is seen as inappropriate where populations are intermingled as they are in Kyrgyzstan. Regional monolinguism is shown to be liable to the same criticisms as national monolinguism. The paper ends by suggesting that the socio-cultural variant of multiculturalism as practised in some countries of immigration, such as Australia, is a possible model for Kyrgyzstan.