Citizenship and Group Rights

Launch of DVD in BSL, and a presentation of group rights research findings by

Dr Steven D. EmeryThursday 31st March 2011, Friends Meeting House, London

With thanks to…

The Leverhulme Trust

The Opening

Opening

The night of the long ‘thank you’

The Citizenship DVD/Book precedes the research on group rights – so I start there

Narrative on Citizenship leads to group rights research

The Citizenship DVD/Book

The DVD/Book – dedications

Keith

Derek

DVD/Book – the birth

Context: The historical time that was 2002

We marched and blocked the roads – an important celebration

A scholarship was devised and born: ‘what does the concept of citizenship enable us to understand about the Deaf community’s relationship to the world’?

DVD/Book – the birth

A scholarship was devised and born: ‘what does the concept of citizenship enable us to understand about the Deaf community’s relationship to the world’?

DVD/Book – initial inspirations

Professor Graham H. Turner

Professor Keith Faulks

Professor Ian Levitt

University of Central Lancashire – funding

A special thanks to Lynne Barnes for support with locating accessible funds

DVD/Book – the path followed

Who am I to do this research?

Deaf people’s citizenship status in mainstream society

Question: Engage with philosophers or those who have PhD’s in lived Deaf lives?

DVD/Book – the next big thank you

The gatekeepers

The research consultation group

The research group participants and individuals

The ‘elite stakeholders’

DVD/Book – we thought we had won

Changing contexts: 2003 in history

The limits to ‘BSL Recognition’

Research Interviews: 2004-2006

DVD/Book – a quote

Citizenship in any society has to be understood in the context of the power relationships that exist in that society, and the political, economic and cultural changes that affect that society(Faulks, K. 1998. Citizenship in Modern Britain, p4.)

DVD/Book – why in BSL?

The DVD has been produced to be accessible to research group participants, whose language is British Sign Language

This philosophy is in line with action or empowering research principles

It’s production, however, means it is also accessible to the BSL population and a number of other groups

A caveat: the meaning of ‘access’ in academic terms

DVD/Book – thanks to production

MPH Productions (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Tessa Padden Bob Duncan Nicholas Padden BSL Uptake Clips: http://www.bsluptake.org.uk/2010/citizenship-

and-the-deaf-community-chapter-2-%e2%80%93-the-literature-review-2-1-introduction/

Ishara Press Ulrike Zeshan The Book as well as the DVD No profits or royalties are made from the book/DVD

DVD/Book – the production

PhD was submitted October 2006 Viva was passed February 2007 Production of DVD began at end of 2007 and was

complete by 2009

Therefore it may be slightly dated, but there are some key and critical concepts, ideas and empirical findings within the PhD that I hope the reader will find helpful and valid

DVD/Book – post production

‘A Deaf Perestroika’ – necessary real changes in how social policy relates to Deaf people and their community (because of audism, phonocentrism, oralism and the group and transnational nature of the community)

Think of the current times: transitions in the Middle East and how people are making it happen

Transition in Deaf worlds – from individual citizenship rights, to multicultural citizenship as social justice; from assimilation to accommodation.

DVD/Book – post production

It is what Deaf people want, so, how can it be achieved?

The DVD/Book has dual sides: (a) it shows the reality of lived second-class citizenship; and (b) dares the reader to dream

Further thanks

Far too many to mention! I have named many in the acknowledgements; but some special mentions here:

Annie Murphy

Claire Haddon

The UCLan Deaf society: 2002-2005

Staff at the University of Central Lancashire: 2002-2005

With the support of a LOT of people, the DVD/Book has become a reality

So…

A massive

THANK YOU

to every single person who has made the DVD and book possible!

And so we come to Group Rights…

…but before that:

Nick from Ishara Press on buying the DVD

Short Break: then…a presentation on recent research findings

Group Rights – the findings

Dr Steven D. Emery

Structure of the Group Rights part

Opening and thanks

A Paradox / Puzzle / Question

Research Evidence

Future Plans

Opening and Thanks

Opening Thanks

Some major thanks to begin: The Leverhulme Trust: ECF, taking a risk Dr Paddy Ladd - mentoring Some ‘hidden players’

– Mr Roger Deeks– Dr Sarah Batterbury– Professor Rachel Murray (early input)

University of Bristol

A Paradox / Puzzle / Question

The Paradox 1

Making transitions in social policy: initial group rights findings in the PhD

In Theory: Cultural Linguistic Minority Group

In Practice: Under the umbrella of disability

The Paradox 2

In Reality– Only legitimate under disability law– Official minority language acts tend to include sign

languages on paper, but exclude them in practice

Rigorous pursuit of Rights from the State (individual rights)

Almost total neglect of Group Rights (rights of a groups’ peoples, or natural justice)

The research of the paradox

An exploration, not a quest

An exercise in debate, not dogma

An opportunity to imagine, reject current norms

Some very big thanks due

To all 14 participants who took part in the group and individual meetings

Deaf Ex-Mainstreamers and those who attended Deaf Schools; with special thanks to:

– Lorna Allsop– Jill Jones and the Deaf ex-mainstreamers group

Those who assisted with filming the proceedings

Examples of group rights…

Let’s look at some examples of group rights; but first of all, they are not often labelled as ‘group rights’:

Ensuring places are reserved for minority representation in government or on councils;

Respecting the cultural practices of a groups peoples;

Allowing exemptions of minorities from majority practices;

Conceding separate territory or allowing territorial minority group secession.

Research Evidence

Initial research meetings

The need to distinguish between: the right to form a group or the rights of members of the group (individual rights); and the rights held by all a group’s peoples (collective rights).

There are fundamental differences: the collective nature (culture) of the Deaf community is well covered in the literature, but their ‘rights’ are all too often assumed to be held by members individually, rather than collectively.

There is nothing mistaken or ‘wrong’ with individual rights; but there has been little research into the collective rights of the Deaf community.

Further questions

Sign language peoples group rights are complex because:– Deaf people are not territorial – there are no separatist Deaf

movements, for example (though genetics might change that);– They are a small minority of the general population;– They are not passed down from parents, 90% of whom are

hearing;– That doesn’t mean they are ultra-unique:

Roma people have no fixed territory and also no written language; Sami people in Scandinavia are not fixed to one country; Farsi people in India are a very tiny minority but have minority group

rights (and there are countless other examples across Europe); Cornish people are even fewer than BSL people yet their language

and cultural rights are being increasingly recognised; The African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights recognises group

rights, in a way unlike European or American Human Rights laws.

Some very surprising recent examples

Special Educational Needs review

The example of representation in South African parliament used as an example of how it might work in UK parliament

Some critical points

Group rights do not necessarily mean that these groups have complete and total freedom or self-determination;

Many language and minority groups remain ‘at risk’: lesser used spoken languages are dying out, as are tribes of the Amazon or other indigenous peoples, for example;

Group rights, however, are a way of enabling minority groups to assert some degree of ‘self-determination’;

Sign language people have many similarities with these cultural groups.

The critical questions:

What rights do Deaf people have in common

What is necessary, legally, to enable Deaf people the right to self-determination

[Imagine Deaf Awareness Week was a group right]

To ensure protection and promotion

A Board or Boards led by Sign Language peoples (the example of Gaelic)

This is not a ‘Charter’ (these are symbolic)

It is not a ‘quango’ (these are little more than ‘advisory’)

It is not a ‘Sign Language Act’ (these are very important strategically, but experience demonstrates they are often left exposed by compromising too heavily on ‘individual choice’; dependent on non-core funding; and are not immune from intervention by disruptive powerful medical advances, as the Swedish example demonstrates)

So what is it…

Gaelic Language Board (Scotland)

Gaelic Language Board Budget of £24m annually (2008-2009) 60,000 speakers Alliances: Northern Ireland, Scotland, Republic of Ireland Collaboration with Gaelic Language Speakers:

– Increase lobby power– Online dictionary– National Plan to support Language Planning– Gaelic Arts Fund– Gaelic Language TV Channel/Gaelic College

It is to…

- promote natural justice;

- enable sign language people to be leaders, in:

- promoting and protecting their language and cultural heritage

- not [necessarily] ‘ask’ the State ‘for’ anything.

5 rights identified that could be under the jurisdiction of sign language ‘board(s)’

Sign Language usage in education

English (or native written language) literacy in education

Tutors/Role Models who are native to sign language

Resources in all regions to promote and advance the Deaf community (Centres, Sports, Television Channel, Cultural events)

Ensuring deaf children are educated together in large numbers

Finally…

The necessity of a period of ‘repair’ and ‘restructuring’ following years of damages: similar to Maori, Northern Ireland, South Africa, for example

The role of ‘Deafhood consciousness raising’

The role and involvement of hearing allies

The urgency following genetic advances

Future Plans

The next steps…

Further exploration, debate and vision-planning

– CDS (research-focused) Social Justice frameworks (Dr Sarah Batterbury) Deafhood and Group Rights (Dr Paddy Ladd) Deaf Community (Research)

Via: publication of the findings

– Journal(s)

– In BSL via CDS and/or conferences

– The Web

To summarise the evening

A big thank you to everyone for coming

The development of the DVD

Findings from the Group Rights research

Time for questions