{{italic title '' J.G.A. Diergaardt (late Captain of the Rehoboth Baster Community) et al. v.

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

'' (No. 760/1997) (2000) was a case decided by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

Human Rights Committee The United Nations Human Rights Committee is a treaty body composed of 18 experts, established by a 1966 human rights treaty, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The Committee meets for three four-week sessions per y ...

Complaints

Representatives of the Rehoboth Baster Community filed an official complaint over alleged violations of Articles 1 ( right to self-determination), 14 ( equality before the courts), 17 (

privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...

), 25 (right to participate in public life), 26 (ban of

discrimination Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...

) and 27 ( minority rights) under the

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is a multilateral treaty that commits nations to respect the civil and political rights of individuals, including the right to life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedo ...

(

ICCPR The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is a multilateral treaty that commits nations to respect the civil and political rights of individuals, including the right to life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedo ...

), in effect since 1976.

Committee's views

The committee found that it has no competence over alleged violations of Article 1, and that no violations of Articles 14, 17, 25 and 27 were shown by the facts before it. The committee held that

"the authors have shown that the State party has instructed civil servants not to reply to the authors' written or oral communications with the authorities in the
Afrikaans language Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch dialects, Dutch vernacular of Holland, Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German set ...
, even when they are perfectly capable of doing so. These instructions barring the use of Afrikaans do not relate merely to the issuing of public documents but even to telephone conversations. In the absence of any response from the State party the Committee must give due weight to the allegation of the authors that the circular in question is intentionally targeted against the possibility to use Afrikaans when dealing with public authorities. Consequently, the Committee finds that the authors, as Afrikaans speakers, are victims of a violation of article 26 of the Covenant" (Para. 10.10.).

Members Abdalfattah Amor, Nisuke Ando,

P. N. Bhagwati Prafullachandra Natwarlal Bhagwati (21 December 1921 – 15 June 2017) was the 17th Chief Justice of India, serving from 12 July 1985 until his retirement on 20 December 1986. He introduced the concepts of public interest litigation and absolu ...

, Lord Colville,

Maxwell Yalden Maxwell Freeman Yalden, (April 12, 1930 – February 9, 2015) was a Canadian civil servant and diplomat. Born in Toronto, Ontario, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto in 1952, a Master of Arts degree in 1954 and a ...

and

Rajsoomer Lallah Rajsoomer Lallah (September 1933 – 3 June 2012) was a Mauritian lawyer and judge who played a leading role in International Human Rights cases. Birth and education Lallah was born in Mauritius in 1933. He was an Anderson Scholar at Balliol Co ...

filed four dissenting opinions on Article 26; members Elizabeth Evatt,

Eckart Klein Eckhart Klein (born 6 April 1943) is a German legal scholar. From June 1994 to July 2008, he held the chair for constitutional, international, and European law at the University of Potsdam. Biography Klein was born 6 April 1943 in Oppeln, Sile ...

David Kretzmer David Kretzmer ( he, דוד קרצמר; born 4 November 1943 in Johannesburg, South Africa) is an Israeli expert in international and constitutional law. He is professor emeritus of international law of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and profe ...

Cecilia Medina Quiroga Cecilia Medina Quiroga (born 1935 in Concepción) is a Chilean jurist. Biography Cecilia Medina studied legal and social sciences at the University of Chile in Santiago and earned a doctorate in law at the University of Utrecht in the Netherla ...

and

Martin Scheinin Martin Scheinin (born 4 November 1954) is an international law scholar who served as the first United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism in 2005–2011. He was selected for this position after serving for eight year ...

filed two concurring opinions on the same issue. Elizabeth Evatt and Cecilia Medina Quiroga filed a concurring opinion on Article 27.

External links

HRC views
Linguistic discrimination United Nations Human Rights Committee case law Human rights in Namibia 2000 in case law 2000 in Namibia Indigenous land rights Afrikaans Language policy in South Africa Language policy in Namibia