Date: 21/01/2010
Balochistan shaken by the killing of 2 students by the Pakistani military
Members of the Frontiers Corps opened fire against the Baloch Students Organisation · Several senators left the Pakistani Parliament in protest against the killings · Baloch parties claim for full provincial autonomy · Human Rights Watch warns against violation of human rights committed to Baloch nationalists.
Date: 20/01/2010
Morocco launches first public Amazigh language TV ever
NEWS IN BRIEF. The Tamazight channel will be in its initial testing period until March · It will broadcast 70% of its contents in Amazigh with subtitles in Arabic.
Date: 18/01/2010
Official status for Catalan in the EU is a must, Catalan government says
Vice-President of Catalonia Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira invited the representatives of the EU state members to reflect on 'the anomaly' of excluding Catalan from the languages with official status in Europe · Next European Commissioner for Culture, Education and Multilingualism says EU has to 'go beyond' the number of languages currently recognized by the Union.
Date: 14/01/2010
Election year in Burma but little prospect of change for minorities
Date: 13/01/2010
Italian and Austrian dual citizenship requested by government party in South Tyrol
NEWS IN BRIEF. The SVP has launched a signature petition campaign and held talks with an Austrian parliamentary commission.
Date: 12/01/2010
Cyprus runs out of chances for reunification
Governments from the island’s Greek and Turkish areas have started the last round of talks before the presidential elections in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus · Greek Cypriots have rejected a proposal made by Turks while sensitive issues such as borders and land ownership are yet to be dealt with.
Date: 11/01/2010
Martinique and Guiana say no to more devolution
Citizens from these two territories under French administration are in favour of keeping the status quo · They will continue to be overseas departments with a very limited degree of self-rule, as low as any other region in metropolitan France · Most local politicians were in favour of more powers, but fear of economic side-effects of autonomy prevailed.
Date: 04/01/2010
Date: 23/12/2009
Pro-Kurdish deputies of banned DTP to stay in Turkish Parliament as BDP members
The Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), set up last May, will be the parliamentary group of the Kurdish deputies as long as independent deputy Ufuk Uras joins it · Kurds threatened to leave the parliament after the Turkish Constitutional Court shut down the DTP party and banned 37 of its members from politics.
Date: 18/12/2009
Aragonese and Catalan languages recognised by the assembly of Aragon
The Languages Act has been approved, but keeps Spanish as the only official language while acknowledging the autonomous community’s own minoritised languages as 'original and historical' · PSOE (Spanish Labour) and CHA (Leftist Aragonese nationalists) voted in favour of it, whilst PP (conservative Spanish nationalists) and PAR (regionalists) voted against it. IU (Spanish Left) abstained · A Language Supreme Council is to advise the government on language issues.
