Notwithstanding the 1789 Declaration of human rights, followed by the United Nations Charter (1945), the universal Declaration of human rights (1948 : article 2) and the European Convention on human rights (1950 : articles 4, 6, 10 11, et 14), several articles of which refer to language use, a lot of African countries, amongst which the Ivory Coast, have chosen the language of the former colonizer as official language at independence. All their institutions, legal texts and fundamental citizen rights are formultated uniquely in a language the vast majority of the population neither speaks nor comprehends. After a brief historical overview, this article addresses the question whether fundamental human rights are only expressed in the former colonial language, from a sociolinguistique viewpoint : that is, from the impact of language policy -or its absence- on citizens' everyday life, especially in the Ivory Coast and ends with a more general reflexion on the linguistic behavior and language attitudes of this state and its citizens.