In September 2024 the United Nations will hold the Summit of the Future, whose hoped-for outcome will be, among other things, the Pact for the Future on how to address the current urgent challenges facing the world. Unfortunately, the initial draft of the Pact for the Future, mentions neither multilingualism nor language rights at all. This is a major challenge because solving the world’s crises requires inclusivity and open communication, which are impossible as long as linguistic discrimination persists.
UEA has long been a champion of language rights, and we have been strategically engaged recently in advocating for attention to language rights in the process leading up to the Pact. Beginning in the 1990s, the Centre For Research and Documentation on World Language Problems has convened its Nitobe Symposium emphasizing language rights and their relevance to contemporary geopolitics and sustainable development. As a follow-up, and building on the momentum of the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Committee on Language and Languages, a substantive committee of non-governmental organizations (whose chair, Francis M. Hult, is a representative of UEA to the UN) convened a dialogue forum in December 2023 to further reinforce to UN stakeholders that they must not forget that human rights include linguistic human rights. These events laid a foundation for advocating for the inclusion of language rights in the Pact for the Future.
UEA representatives in New York have since been active in the formal and informal mechanisms to provide civil society input on the Pact for the Future. This work has included submitting written recommendations through the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CoNGO) and the NGO Major Group as well as ongoing consultations with member states that have a strong history of supporting multilingualism and language rights. The culminating opportunity for civil society input and dialogue in the lead-up to the Summit of the Future is the UN Civil Society Conference to be held in Nairobi, Kenya in May. The Conference is a vital opportunity for UEA to follow through on its groundwork by advancing awareness about linguistic rights to UN stakeholders at this global forum.
It is hoped that UEA will be represented at the conference by Anny Joanice (Burundi) and Mana Brinson (D.R. Congo).
Reported by Francis M. Hult
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