Events

With view to show case the achievements and potential of comprehensive languages policies for sustainable development and more efficient mainstreaming into the broader policy and strategy frameworks in Latin American and the Caribbean countries, as well as plan the implementation of the 2019 International Year of Indigenous Languages, UNESCO, in cooperation with the Government of Paraguay, national, regional and international partners is organizing an international seminar in Asunción, Paraguay from 3 to 5 July 2018.

The International Seminar is organized by the Government of Paraguay and UNESCO Communication and Information Sector, Knowledge Societies Division, in close collaboration with the UNESCO Intergovernmental Information for All Program (IFAP), national and regional language harmonization and documentation organizations, research and higher educational organizations, civil society in particular indigenous peoples’ organizations in Paraguay. UNESCO Field Offices in San Jose, Brasilia, Montevideo, Kingston, Santiago and Guatemala will contribute to the organization of the event.

The International Seminar will bring together leading researchers, experts, policy and decision makers, representatives of national, regional and international organizations working on language preservation, documentation and promotion related issues, indigenous peoples, private sector organizations in particular those which design language technologies, and other relevant stakeholders.

Major objectives of the international seminar in Paraguay

• Promote the human rights and fundamental freedoms for all language speakers;

• Building on the outcomes of International Conference on Multilingualism in Cyberspace, which was organized in November 2015 in UNESCO in San José, Costa Rica, provide recommendations for the regional follow up actions to promote linguistic diversity in the region.

• Provide a substantive contribution to an updated analysis at national and regional level, reinforcing the national and regional capacity to address the issue of languages in their proper dimension, and to discuss the broad areas of language-related issues;

• Identify emerging initiatives in the LAC region;

• Establish a closer relationship between the representatives of the participating countries in order to develop specific cooperation programs for languages, exchange of experiences, transfer of technologies and management capacities for registration, conservation and development of the languages of the country, with which the Ministry of Language Policy will be the most strengthened.

• Gather and disseminate up-to-date information on the state of work of these countries and their respective languages is a very important opportunity to dimension and analyze the problem in a global way, so as to be able to conduct joint political actions.

• Contribute to the implementation of the United Nations resolution 71/178 on the organization of the International Year of Indigenous Languages and UNESCO’s normative instruments, including the Recommendation concerning the Promotion and Use of Multilingualism and Universal Access to Cyberspace (2003) as well as development of UNESCO World Atlas of Languages.

• Mobilize necessary resources and foster synergies among partners for a joint action in the region.

Expected outcomes of the international seminar in Paraguay

• Concrete recommendations are defined by involved in the event partners including a list of recommendations for the elaboration of the Workplan for the International Year of Indigenous Languages and development of the Regional Language Atlas.

Links:

Linguistic diversity and multilingualism on Internet

Theme page:

Access to Information

Building Knowledge Societies

URL:

https://en.unesco.org/events/international-seminar-empowerment-local-language-speakers-communities-and-nations