Thursday 4 December 2008

Scots Wha Hae?

These 2 motions are so strikingly and pointlessly similar that there is even a subtle namecheck from one to the other!


Short Title: New Translation of the Universal Declaration o Human Richts
S3M-03031 Jamie Hepburn (Central Scotland) (SNP): That the Parliament
welcomes the publication by Amnesty International of a Scots language version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in poster format, in time for its 60th Anniversary on 10 December 2008; believes this will help to promote awareness and understanding of both the human rights agenda and the importance of the Scots language; reaffirms its belief in the declaration’s opening statement that "All human beings born free and equal in dignity and rights", which translates as "Aw human sowels is born free and equal in dignity and richts"; notes that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is one of the most translated documents in history and welcomes the Scots and Gaelic translations of it, and further reaffirms its commitment and respect for fundamental human rights, irrespective of language or any other distinction.



Short Title: European Parliament Civil Liberties Committee’s Recognition of Right to be Educated in and Speak Scots and Gaelic
S3M-03035 Bill Wilson (West of Scotland) (SNP): That the Parliament, further to motion S3M-3022 in the name of Jamie Hepburn (European Parliament Committee’s Concern at Human Rights Abuses), welcomes the desire of the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee to promote regional or minority languages, and specifically the statement that it believes that "the right to speak and to be educated in one’s mother tongue is one of the most basic fundamental rights", and accordingly expresses the opinion that failure to provide education in Scots and Gaelic to the children of native speakers of these languages should be considered a breach of human rights.

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