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On ratifying the Convention, the government was obligated,
within twelve months of ratification, to submit to the Council of Europe a
report on the existing conditions of U.K. national minorities together with a
resume of legislative and other measures taken to give effect to Convention
principles. The Council of Europe received the UK 1st report on 26 July 1999.
Comment 48 of the report stated that, in spite of receiving many
representations about the Cornish from individuals, groups, MP’s and MEP’s, the
Cornish were to be excluded from the Convention. Out of many dozens of UK
groups, only the Cornish were specifically named, identified and targeted by
government within its report as a group to be deprived of Convention benefits.
No other group was similarly singled out for such attention.
It should be remembered that the
Cornish are the only UK group with a justified, but unresolved, territorial
claim - see DuchyofCornwall.eu. This
unwarranted and wholly exceptional adverse treatment is a manifestation of the
government’s determination to keep Cornish history, language and culture out of
schools. By taking such action, the assimilation programme is kept on course
and the duchy/private estate deception is maintained.
Paragraphs 2 and 46 of the 1st UK Convention report said: National Minority is not a legally defined
term within the UK. Our report is therefore based on the definition of racial
group as set out in the Race Relations Act 1976. Therefore the basis for
excluding the Cornish seemed to be the fact that they were not a Race Relations
Act 1976 case-law recognised group. The authorities have always used this as an
excuse to discriminate against the Cornish with impunity.
However, although government was implying that UK groups covered by the
Convention were all Race Relations Act case law recognised groups, the 1st UK report to the Council of Europe detailed measures to be taken to develop and
promote the educational rights of groups labelled: Afro-Caribbean, Muslim, the Deaf, Hindu, visible women, black men,
Travellers, Bengali, Christian, Ulster-Scot, Black-Jewish and Gaelic. As
none of these groups were Race Relations Act case law recognised groups,
government were operating an exclusion mechanism that was rigorously applied to
the Cornish, but not to others. This proved in time to be an unwarranted
difference in treatment that government could not justify, and therefore
refused to address.
As founder member and director of
pressure group Cornwall 2000, I had been in dialogue with the UK Government and
the Council of Europe on this matter since 1997. Other Cornish individuals and groups, as well as Andrew George MP
[who had raised the matter in Parliament on a number of occasions], were also
making their own representations. Following release of the UK 1st Compliance
Report, the Advisory Committee visited the UK to seek out the views of those
affected by the content prior to formulating its own detailed response.
In June of 2001, a number of
Cornish campaigners travelled to London to meet representatives from the
Advisory Committee. We gave an overview
of the long history, unique culture and different origins of the Cornish
people. We also pointed out the legally extant territorial rights of the people
of Cornwall. The representatives did not need reminding that the purpose of the
Convention is to protect and promote threatened minorities, and those most in
need of the protection afforded by the Convention are those minorities who are
in danger of being assimilated out of existence, i.e. the Cornish. The Committee was impressed both by our numerous representations to date and our presentation that day, for the subsequent Advisory Committee Opinion stated that the Cornish should be included within the Convention.
The follow-up July 2001 Home Office response to a list of Advisory Committee questions detailed the plethora of measures to be taken, and the many millions of pounds to be spent, enhancing the Convention rights of the likes of the Ulster-Scots and Gael groups. Yet these were not Race Relations Act case
law recognised groups. In that same Home Office document, government told the
Advisory Committee that, as the Cornish were not a Race Relations Act case law
recognised group, the Cornish must remain excluded from the Convention.
Throughout the intervening
period, the Cornish continued to be excluded from the Convention and their
children continued to be subjected to forced assimilation. However, Convention
reporting obligations placed an onus on government to submit a second
compliance report to the Secretary General by May of 2004. Although Cornwall
2000 and others had made many unsuccessful attempts to get the government to
explain why it included some non-case law recognised groups in the Convention,
but excluded the Cornish, we failed to obtain any coherent response. We were
therefore forced to conclude that it would be necessary to challenge government
irrationality in the courts.
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