Sign languages

On 23 January 2001 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted Recommendation 1492 (2001) on the rights of national minorities.

The text was examined by the Committee of Ministers (Ministers’ Deputies) on 15 February 2001, who decided to assign ad hoc terms of reference to the Committee on the Rehabilitation and Integration of People with disabilities (Partial Agreement) (CD-P-RR) to draw up an opinion on that Recommendation, in particular on paragraph 12.xiii concerning sign languages.

On 13 June 2002 the Committee of Ministers adopted its reply to Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1492 (2001).

On 1 April 2003, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted Recommendation 1598 (2003) on the protection of sign languages in the member states of the Council of Europe.