The Occitan Nation Party firmly supports the Varenne family

The Occitan Nation Party calls for the co-officialisation of the Occitan language
throughout Occitan territory

Artús Varenne was born on 15 December 2022. Quite logically, his parents gave him an Occitan first name. It would be perfectly normal for Occitan children to be given Occitan first names. But here we are ... colonised Occitania depends on the goodwill of its occupiers and their native accomplices. For example, the municipal authorities in Mende refused to register Artús's first name on the grounds that it contains a « u with an acute accent », which is prohibited in French civil status documents by the Taubira circular of 23/07/2014, because it is unusual in the French language, a prohibition confirmed by the Constitutional Council in its decision of 21/05/2021 censuring the Molac law, in the name of the unity of the French Republic and the uniqueness of its official language.

This case is not the first in the French State. Attacks on language rights are recurrent in France. The matter was referred to the United Nations Human Rights Council by the lawyers representing the family of little Artús. On 31 May 2022, this body reacted by criticising France for its policy of linguicide. But never mind : on the one hand, France endlessly lectures other States on respect for international law, while at the same time breaching its own international commitments. This behaviour is purely imperialist. For France, Occitania does not exist, just as Ukraine does not exist for Russia or Kurdistan for Turkey.

We, the Occitan Nation Party, demand that Article 2 of the Constitution be rewritten to co-officialise the indigenous languages on their territory. In addition, the running of civil registers and language policies must be the sole responsibility of the Regions.

The Occitan Nation Party firmly supports the Varenne family in their fight for respect for their identity. It calls on Occitan families to name their children with Occitan first names that include diacritical accents in order to increase the number of legal disputes with the State. Below, we publish the open letter sent on behalf of the Varenne family to the President of the Republic by their lawyer, Maître Stéphane Pagés.

Long live resistance to oppression!

President of the Republic

Élysée Palace

55, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré

75008 PARIS

Paris, 31 December 2024

By registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt  (for caution’s sake) and by e-mail

Case: Artús Varenne / France

Subject: Open letter - request for rectification of civil status record and breach of France's international commitments

Mr. President,

In the context of the case referred to above, I am intervening in the interests of the parents of Artús Varenne, acting both on their own behalf and in their capacity as legal representatives of their son.

Artús was born on 15 December 2022 in Mende (Lozère) and his first name was rejected by the local authorities  on the grounds that it bears a diacritical accent from a regional language (the acute accent on the u). Artús is an Occitan first name, an indigenous minority language. Its speakers have historically been subjected to significant infringements of their fundamental rights in our country, as a result of an assimilationist and linguicidal policy, which is why this case has already attracted a certain amount of media attention, both in France and abroad.

This case comes against the backdrop, as you know, of the Constitutional Council's decision no. 2021-818 DC of 21 May 2021 concerning the law on the protection of the heritage of regional languages and their promotion, better known as the Molac law.

Under the terms of this decision, which was based on article 2, paragraph 1*, of the Constitution, which states that « the language of the Republic shall be French », several provisions of the Molac law, which had been passed by a very large majority, were declared to be unconstitutional. This was particularly true of article 9, which stipulated that « the diacritical marks of regional languages are authorised in civil status documents », to enable the correct pronunciation of first names and surnames in these languages. In the days that followed, you expressed your views on this subject by publishing a statement on the Facebook social media site in support of regional languages, emphasizing that « the law must liberate, never stifle. Open up, never reduce. The same colour, the same accents, the same words : that is not our nation. As Braudel wrote : France calls itself diversity ». In Villers-Cotterêts on 30 October 2023, you again stressed that the French language « must coexist harmoniously with our 72 regional languages, including (...) all Occitan languages », during your speech at the inauguration of the Cité internationale de la langue française. However, notwithstanding the many calls for a revision of the Constitution, particularly from 140 Members of Parliament, we note that such a revision procedure, whether of Article 2 of the Constitution or even, less ambitiously but more consensually, of Article 75-1, does not seem to be on the agenda.

In this respect, on 31 May 2022, three Special Rapporteurs mandated by the United Nations Human Rights Council sent France a critical report on the aforementioned decision of the Constitutional Council, stating as follows:

« We fear that the adoption and application of this decision could lead to significant violations of the human rights of linguistic minorities in France. (...)

The decision (1°2021-818 DC) of the Constitutional Council establishes the unconstitutionality of immersive teaching in a language other than French and of the use of diacritical signs of regional languages in civil status documents. This decision may undermine the dignity, freedom, equality and non-discrimination, as well as the identity of the people of France's historical minority languages and cultures. (...)

In this context, we would like to draw your Excellency's Government's attention to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (to which) France acceded on 4 November 1980’ (OL FRA 3/2022). »

The said Special Rapporteurs therefore asked the French Government to comment on this point. However, this request went unheeded, unlike many other cases involving our country. We understand that, in the current protean crisis, the fight against linguistic discrimination may not be a national priority. However, as a matter of principle, we note a certain dichotomy - not to say antinomy - in the position adopted by the homeland of human rights, which, on the one hand, stands up against violations of international law by other States and, on the other, breaches its own international commitments, particularly under the provisions of Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the findings of the United Nations Human Rights Committee on this basis.

We would therefore be grateful if you could tell us what measures the French authorities intend to take in concrete terms to rectify Artús Varenne's civil status record and put an end to the infringements of his fundamental rights and his very identity. Failing this, we reserve the right to take France to the United Nations Human Rights Committee, if necessary, given its favourable and progressive approach in this matter.

Please accept, Mr President of the Republic, the assurance of our most respectful consideration.

Stéphane Pagès, Barrister.

PAGES LAW EI / 19, rue de la Paix / 75002 Paris – pages‑law.com – T. : 06.86.14.96.36 – E. : pages@pages law.com

Artús Varenne