Can Welsh speakers sue Yahoo under the Human Rights Act 1998?

Question

The European Convention of Human Rights, Schedule 1, Article 14 states:

"Prohibition of discrimination

The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this Convention shall be secured without discrimination on any ground such as s*x, race, colour, LANGUAGE, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status."

Therefore, Yahoo are in breach of the Human Rights Act.

Answer 1

Oh, yachy da, Dai my old butty-bach!  What are you on about?

A curious point!  I occasionally post questions in 'Deutsche sprachen'  (German) - on the UK site, but they don't get deleted!

I cannot see why questions in Cymru should be.

Answer 2

but English is the main language of wales,[and the UK which wales is apart of] not Welsh, every sign in Wales is English and has welsh above it

Answer 3

what a waste of time and money that would entail , I studied when a youngster ancient Greek and can speak it i doubt there are more than a few dozen people in the world that can , following you train of thought i could insist that to was covered and so on and on and on and on ,. I should think Welsh was removed for the same reason cover one obscure laungage and you have to do the same for all and how would they manage to weed out the abusive and rude if they do not speak welsh , ancient Greek, Polish , German,Swedish,and on and on and on . I think PC s have done enough damage as it is without any more thank you

Answer 4

C'mon Die, be nice (Shouldn't you have written that in Cumry (Excuse if spelt wrong)

Answer 5

You would have to prove discrimination - the fact that Yahoo doesn't offer a Welsh service is in itself not discrimination, but merely a gap in its service. If you replied to a question in Welsh, or asked a question in Welsh, Yahoo! would not take action against you, as that would be discrimination.

Answer 6

You would have to come to planet earth before you could sue anyone.  Feel free to sue them.  The loser has to pay the winner's attorney's fees and all legal costs.

Answer 7

Cymru am byth but i dont see how yahoo answers are breaching the human rights act

Answer 8

how does yahoo descriminate against the welshys?  

Answer 9

I doubt it.

The user doesn't have to use Yahoo - they can go elsewhere.

And it wouldn't take much to discover that Yahoo doesn't operate in Welsh.

Damages would be hard to prove as well.

Answer 10

Yahoo is an American company. The EU has limited power over their conduct (they have some, like the antitrust case against Microsoft, but it's limited). The courts would probably find that this act doesn't apply to a US comany.

The act may apply to a US company that is contracting to provide rights to the people, but there is a more fundamental problem here. The people have no right to use Yahoo. A company doesn't need to bend over backwards spending its resources to avoid descrimination. There are very few Welsh speakers who don't also speak English (especially if you ignore older people who use the internet less often anyway). Yahoo is primarily in English. It just doesn't make business sense for the company to expend all the resources necessary to make a Welsh site nobody would use.

If the government refused to translate laws into Welsh, you'd have a case. Access to the law is a right and the government doesn't have such concerns over best business practices.

Answer 11

Well if you can afford the legal fees you go ahead.

Do keep us posted on how successful your legal action is.

.

Answer 12

thats just stupid and petty