"Globalizing access to information has enabled counterhegemonic forces to ensure that there is growing sensitivity to human rights. But at the same time there is also a growing inability to secure them by progressive forces in civil society. The gap between rhetoric and implementation is growing, with all the growing inequalities. Behind this lies the collapse of institutions of democratic political control of trade and capital. In this light, it is completely predictable that states commit linguistic genocide; it is part of the support to the homogenizing global market forces . . . At present, though we can hope that some of the positive developments might have some effect, overall there is not much cause for optimism . . . we still have to work for education through the medium of the mother tongue to be recognized by states as a human right."

From T. Skutnabb-Kangas's "Language, Power and Linguistic Human Rights - the Role of the State" as found in Colin H. Williams's "Language Policy and Planning Issues in Multicultural Societies" in Linguistic Conflict and Language Laws: Understanding the Québec Question, edited by Pierre Larrivée (2003).