(Inter-)
National Linguistic Associations endorsing the
Guidelines for
the Use of Language Analysis in Relation
to
Questions of National Origin in Refugee Cases
The Guidelines…
(2004) are a document prepared jointly by members of the Language and National
Origin Group in 2004, and subsequently published in The International
Journal of Speech, Language and the Law: Forensic Linguistics, Vol. 11 no. 2, pp. 179-266.
They were intended for the guidance of both language
professionals and concerned government agencies and NGOs, including both:
·
Linguists who
have not yet been involved in such situations, but might become so, or who feel
they ought to be informed about developments in their field; and
·
Non-linguists
(e.g. lawyers, administrative judges, asylum issues activists, members of
government agencies involved in making asylum decisions, and others) who
recognise that issues of language and nationality are complex, and who
recognize the importance of contributions by qualified experts in this area.
The Guidelines… are intended merely as a
starting point in a new, urgent and rapidly-developing field of linguistic
practice. The document provides the necessary context, and recommends a set of
principles that the signers think most linguists will find uncontroversial,
even obvious. It does however touch on a number of bases that might not
immediately occur to colleagues contacted about this matter for the first time.
The
document is also addressed to people outside our profession, giving an idea of
what we think the minimum requirements and safeguards for competent
professional language analysis ought to be. This is perhaps its most important
function: to serve as a touchstone and reference point for governments seeking
to know how to conduct their investigations in a professional manner; for
asylum applicants who have been turned down, in part because of what they
believe to be incorrect assessments based in part on language; and for
advocates who need information about the connections between language and
national origins.
The Guidelines… have been cited as
influential not only by academic linguists, but also by commercial companies
involved in the assessment of refugees’ speech, by legal representatives of
refugees in court proceedings and immigration tribunals, and by government
bureaux assigned to evaluate asylum applications.
A copy of the Guidelines…
may be accessed here: http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~patrickp/language-origin-refugees.pdf,
as well as here: http://www.iafl.org/, on the webpage of
the International Association of Forensic
Linguists (go to “Activity”, then “Documents”). In fact, many endorsing
organizations sponsor such links (see below).
To date (11 January 2009), the Guidelines… have received the following
endorsements from national and international associations of linguistic
scholars and practitioners:
AAAL – American
Association for Applied Linguistics
§
http://www.aaal.org/ (‘Resolutions’ links to
the Guidelines)
§
AAAL endorsed the Guidelines
at their business meeting on
AIDA – Association Internationale de Dialectologie
Arabe
§
AIDA endorsed the Guidelines in
their General Assembly on
ALAA – Applied
Linguistics Association of
§
http://www.alaa.org.au/ (‘Policy Initiatives’ links to the Guidelines)
§
The ALAA endorsed the Guidelines in 2005 among their Policy
Initiatives.
§
http://www.als.asn.au/ (‘Policies’ links to the Guidelines)
§
The
ANELA – De
Nederlandse Vereniging voor Toegepaste Taalwetenschaap (Association of Applied
Linguistics)
§
ANELA endorsed the Guidelines
in 2007.
§
http://www.hum.leiden.edu/lucl/avt
§
BAAL – British Association
for Applied Linguistics
§
http://www.baal.org.uk/ (‘Academic Materials’ > ‘Recommendations on
good practice’ links to the Guidelines)
§
The Executive Committee endorsed
the Guidelines in 2005.
IAFL – International
Association of Forensic Linguists
§
http://www.iafl.org/ (‘Activity’ > ‘Documents’ links to the Guidelines)
§
The International
Association of Forensic Linguists unanimously passed a
motion on
LAGB –
Linguistic Association of
§
http://www.lagb.org.uk/ (homepage contains a link to the Guidelines)
§
A motion endorsing the
Guidelines and recommending them to membership was put to the LAGB in October 2004 and adopted without reservation.
LSA
– Linguistic Society of
§
http://www.lsadc.org (‘Sitemap’
> ‘Resolutions, Statements and Guides’)
§
A ‘sense-of-the-meeting’ resolution was passed at the annual business
meeting on
SPCL – Society for Pidgin and Creole
Linguistics
§
http://www.mona.uwi.edu/dllp/spcl/home.html
§
The SPCL meeting in
January 2005 unanimously adopted a
resolution endorsing the Guidelines
and recommending them to the membership.