Francophonie

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**Francophonie**
Proposed by Niger and adopted in 1987, the Francophonie flag symbolises the five continents of French influence.
Official language	French
Executive Secretariat	Abdou Diouf (since 2002)
Established	1970.
Member states	53 (plus 2 associate members and 13 observers)
Headquarters	Paris, France
Official site	Official site of La Francophonie (in French)

Francophonie refers to an international organisation of French-speaking countries and governments, and also to the community of French speaking people ^[1]. Formally known as the "Organisation internationale de la Francophonie" (in English, "International Organization of La Francophonie" [1]"), fifty-five states and governments are members of the organisation and thirteen are observers. The prerequisite for admission is not the degree of French usage in the member countries, but a prevalent presence of French culture and French language in the member country's identity stemming from France's interaction with other nations in its history. Few of the member states are majority French-speaking aside from France, its overseas possessions and sub-national members. French functions in several other member states as a common language while having little current presence in the other members, being that the links are mainly historical and cultural .

French geographer Onésime Reclus, brother of Élisée Reclus, coined the French portmanteau "Francophonie" in 1880 to refer to the community of people and countries using the French language. In addition to referring to the international organisation, Francophonie may also be used to reference the worldwide community of those people whose native language or second language is French (i.e., the French Sprachraum). Francophonie was then coined a second time by Léopold Sédar Senghor, founder of the Négritude movement, in the review Esprit in 1962, who assimilated it to Humanism ^[2]^[3].

The modern Francophonie was created in 1970. Its motto is égalité, complémentarité, solidarité (equality, complementarity, and solidarity), alluding to France's motto. Started as a small club of Northern French-speaking countries, it has since evolved into an important international organisation whose numerous branches cooperate with the organisation's member states in the fields of culture, science, economy, justice, and peace.

1 Structure
2 Missions
- 2.1 French language, cultural and linguistic diversity
- 2.2 Peace, democracy and human rights
3 Members
- 3.1 Non-members with significant French language usage
4 Notes
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Structure

World map of the Francophonie members and participants. In addition to applicable countries, subnational memberships (in Belgium and Canada) are represented.

The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie has an observer status at the UN General Assembly.

20 Mar 1970: Agency for Cultural and Technical Co-operation (ACCT) (Agence de coopération culturelle et technique)
4 Dec 1995: Intergovernmental Agency of the Francophonie (Agence intergouvernementale de la Francophonie)
Dec 1998: International Organisation of the Francophonie (OIF) (Organisation internationale de la Francophonie)

[edit] Executive Secretariat (Secretaries-general)

Boutros Boutros-Ghali (Egypt) : 16 Nov 1997 - 31 Dec 2002
Abdou Diouf (Senegal) : 1 Jan 2003 - present

[edit] Summits

Summits of the Francophonie are held every two years, at which time the leaders of the member states have an opportunity to meet and develop strategies and goals for the organisation.

Past Summits:

[edit] Ministerial conferences

[edit] Permanent council

The Permanent Council of the Francophonie consists of Ambassadors of the member countries, and, like the ministers conferences, its main task is to plan future summits and also to supervise the implementation of summit decisions on a day-to-day basis.

[edit] Intergovernmental agency

The Intergovernmental Agency of the Francophonie is the main operator of the cultural, scientific, technical, economic and legal cooperation programs decided at the Summits. The Agency's headquarters are in Paris and it has three regional branches in Libreville, Gabon; Lomé, Togo; and Hanoi, Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

[edit] Missions

The Charte de la Francophonie defines the role and missions of the organisation. The current charter was adopted in Antananarivo, on November 23, 2005. The last summit held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on 26-27 November 2004 saw the adoption of a strategic framework for the period 2004-2014.

[edit] French language, cultural and linguistic diversity

The primary mission of the organisation is the promotion of the French language as an international language and the promotion of worldwide cultural and linguistic diversity in the era of economic globalisation. In this regard, countries that are members of the Francophonie have contributed largely to the adoption by the UNESCO of the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (October 20, 2005).

[edit] Peace, democracy and human rights

Similar to organisations such as the Commonwealth of Nations, the Francophonie have in its stated aims the promotion of democracy and human rights. Following the November 3rd 2000 Déclaration de Bamako ^[4], the Francophonie has given itself the financial means to attain a number of set objectives in that regard.

In recent years, some participating governments, notably the government of Quebec and Canada, pushed for the adoption of a Charter in order for the organisation to sanction member States that are known to have poor records when it comes to the protection of human rights and the practice of democracy. Such a measure was debated at least twice but was never approved.

[edit] Members

The official list of members is available at the Francophonie website.

Country	Status	Year joined	Language	Notes
Albania	member	1999	Albanian official language	approximately 30% of the population has learned French and can speak it in varying degrees. [2]
Andorra	member	2004	Catalan official language	president of France is co-prince of Andorra
Belgium	member	1970	officially trilingual, French included	Belgium's French community is also a member separately
* French Community of Belgium	member	1980	French official language	a community of Belgium
Benin	member	1970	French official language	former French colony
Bulgaria	member	1993	Bulgarian official language	French is spoken by 9% as additional language
Burkina Faso	member	1970	French official language	former French colony
Burundi	member	1970	French official language	former Belgian colony
Cambodia	member	1993	Khmer official language	former French colony
Cameroon	member	1991	officially bilingual, French included	former French colony
Canada	member	1970	Officially bilingual, French included	the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick are participating governments; much of Quebec and the Maritimes formed part of former French Colonies.
* New Brunswick	participating government	1977	officially bilingual, French included	province of Canada; former French colony (Acadia)
* Quebec	participating government	1971	French official language	province of Canada; former French colony (New France)
Cape Verde	member	1996	Portuguese official language	former Portuguese colony
Central African Republic	member	1973	officially bilingual, French included	former French colony
Chad	member	1970	French official language	former French colony
Comoros	member	1977	officially trilingual, French included	former French colony
Democratic Republic of the Congo	member	1977	French official language	former Belgian colony
Republic of the Congo	member	1981	French official language	former French colony
Côte d'Ivoire	member	1970	French official language	former French colony
Djibouti	member	1977	officially bilingual, French included	former French colony
Dominica	member	1979	English official language	former French colony
Egypt	member	1983	Arabic official language	former French colony (first empire), historical Francophone elite
Equatorial Guinea	member	1989	officially bilingual, French included	former Spanish colony
Republic of Macedonia (recognised as the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia)	member	2001	Macedonian official language
France	member	1970	French official language
Gabon	member	1970	French official language	former French colony
Greece	member	2004	Greek official language	French is understood and spoken by 8% of the population
Guinea	member	1981	French official language	former French colony
Guinea-Bissau	member	1979	Portuguese official language	country surrounded by French-speaking countries. Former Portuguese colony
Haiti	member	1970	officially bilingual, French included	former French colony
Laos	member	1991	Lao official language	former French colony
Lebanon	member	1973	Arabic official language	former French colony, French language used in schools and universities, French is understood by majority of the population
Luxembourg	member	1970	Officially trilingual, French included
Madagascar	member	1970-1977 1989	French official language	former French colony
Mali	member	1970	French official language	former French colony
Mauritania	member	1980	Arabic official language	former French colony, French is an administrative language
Mauritius	member	1970	English official language	former French colony (first empire), later British colony, French is commonly used
Moldova	member	1996	Romanian official language
Monaco	member	1970	French official language	former French protectorate
Morocco	member	1981	Arabic official language	former French protectorate, French is commonly used
Niger	member	1970	French official language	former French colony
Romania	member	1993	Romanian official language	French is understood and spoken by 24% of the population [3]
Rwanda	member	1970	officially trilingual, French included	former Belgian colony
Saint Lucia	member	1981	English official language	Former French colony
São Tomé and Príncipe	member	1999	Portuguese official language
Senegal	member	1970	French official language	former French colony
Seychelles	member	1976	officially trilingual, French included	former French colony
Switzerland	member	1996	Officially quadrilingual, French included	French is the native language of about 20% of all Swiss.
Togo	member	1970	French official language	former French colony
Tunisia	member	1970	Arabic official language	former French colony, French is commonly used
Vanuatu	member	1979	officially trilingual	former French colony
Vietnam	member	1970	Vietnamese official language	former French colony

Cyprus	associate member	2006	Greek and Turkish official languages	French is understood and spoken by 12% of the population, historical ties through the Lusignan rule in the middle ages (Kingdom of Cyprus).
Ghana	associate member	2006	English official language	country surrounded by French-speaking countries

Armenia	observer	2004	Armenian official language	Armenian culture closely tied to France via the Franco-Armenian dynasty of the Kingdom of Cilicia during the Middle Ages. See also: Armenian-French relations
Austria	observer	2004	German official language	French is spoken by 10% as additional language
Croatia	observer	2004	Croatian official language	French is understood and spoken by 4% of the population
Czech Republic	observer	1999	Czech official language	French is understood and spoken by 2% of the population
Georgia	observer	2004	Georgian official language
Hungary	observer	2004	Hungarian official language	French is understood and spoken by 2% of the population
Lithuania	observer	1999	Lithuanian official language	French is understood and spoken by 1% of the population
Mozambique	observer	2006	Portuguese official language	former Portuguese colony
Poland	observer	1996	Polish official language	French is understood and spoken by 3% of the population
Serbia	observer	2006	Serbian official language	French is taught in 1/3 of schools.
Slovakia	observer	2002	Slovak official language	French is spoken by 2% as additional language
Slovenia	observer	1999	Slovenian official language	French is spoken by 4% as additional language
Ukraine	observer	2006	Ukrainian official language

[edit] Non-members with significant French language usage

Although French is commonly spoken in the country, Algeria is not a member of the OIF. French is an official language of Jersey, and Guernsey (two of the Channel Islands; a dependency of the UK), of the autonomous Italian region Vallée d'Aoste and of the Indian state Puducherry. While it has no official language, the American state of Louisiana has English and French as de facto "official" languages. French is spoken as an additional language by 29% of the population in the Netherlands, 24% of the population in Portugal, 23% of the population in United Kingdom and 20% of the population in Ireland. Source: [4], data for EU25, published before 2007 enlargement. See further: Languages of the European Union