Official Status
Czech is widely spoken by most inhabitants of the Czech Republic. As given by appropriate laws, courts and authorities can enact and write out documents and judgements in the Czech language (also, financial authorities in the Slovak language). Czech can also be used in all official proceedings in Slovakia as granted by Article 6 of Slovak Minority Language Act 184/1999 Zb.
According to article 37, paragraph 4 of Charter of Fundamental Rights and Basic Freedoms people who do not speak Czech have the right to get an interpreter in a court of law. Instructions for use in Czech must be added to all marketed goods. The right to one's own language is guaranteed by the Constitution for all national and ethnic minorities.
Czech is also one of the 23 official languages in the European Union (since May 2004).
Read more about this topic: Czech Language
Famous quotes containing the words official and/or status:
“No sane local official who has hung up an empty stocking over the municipal fireplace, is going to shoot Santa Claus just before a hard Christmas.”
—Alfred E. Smith (1873–1944)
“Anthropologists have found that around the world whatever is considered “men’s work” is almost universally given higher status than “women’s work.” If in one culture it is men who build houses and women who make baskets, then that culture will see house-building as more important. In another culture, perhaps right next door, the reverse may be true, and basket- weaving will have higher social status than house-building.”
—Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen. Excerpted from, Gender Grace: Love, Work, and Parenting in a Changing World (1990)