64 | Zimbabwe Rule of Law Journal and freedom, equality of all human beings, peace, justice, tolerance, fairness and the rule of law.31 The paper is divided into six parts. The first part analyses the legal and practical implications of official language status. The second section explores the concept of the use of official languages. The third part highlights the legal implications of promotion of use of all languages. The fourth section identifies the implementation gap created by s 6. The fifth part investigates whether s 6 language rights can be limited. The final segment concludes the discourse. 1. Official language status Section 6(1) of the Constitution officially recognises 16 languages namely, Chewa, Chibarwe, English, Kalanga, Koisan, Nambya, Ndau, Ndebele, Shangani, Shona, sign language, Sotho, Tonga, Tswana, Venda and Xhosa. Interestingly, s 6 neither defines an official language nor explains the legal implications of affording official language status to a language. There is no language rights jurisprudence from the Constitutional Court to help clarify these aspects. International law helps clarify the legal implications of declaring a language official. a. What is an official language? Even though international law does not define an official language, De Varennes convincingly defines an official language as “a form of legal recognition of an elevated status for a language in a state or other jurisdiction.”32 A UNESCO report defines an official language as “a language used in the business of government – legislative, executive and judicial.”33 every level must respect, protect, promote and fulfil the rights and freedoms set out in this Chapter.’ 31 See the Preamble and sections 3 and 6 of the Constitution. 32 F de Varennes ‘Draft report on international and comparative perspectives in the use of official languages: models and approaches for South Africa’ (October 2012) 4. In the same vein, a decision of the Spanish Constitutional Court 82/1986 of 26 June, which decided on the unconstitutionality appeal against the Basic Law on the Normalisation of Basque Language Use, second legal fundament stated that ‘... a language is official when it is recognised by public authorities as the normal means of communication within and between themselves and in their relations with private individuals, with full validity and legal effects.’ 33 UNESCO Report entitled ‘The use of vernacular languages in education,’ (1953) 46.