International Mother Language Day

21 February 2000

In November 1999, upon the decision of the 30th session of the General UNESCO conference, International Mother Language Day was established with view of defense of the language and cultural diversity. The holiday is celebrated annually on February 21st from the year of 2000.

The holiday was established in memory of 1952 events which took place in the territory of the current Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh (until 1971 – the territory of Pakistan). This year the protest action meant to defend the native Bengali language was fiercely suppressed, five students died.

According to UNESCO currently there are over 6 thousand languages in the world. 95% of them are used only by 4% of the global population. Some of them have their written language, some not. Different languages use different forms of script depending on the cultural particularities of the nations. The initiative of UNESCO was intended to acknowledge the native languages and encourage their use. This concerns in particular the national minorities.

‘Celebrating International Mother Language Day, - outlined in his address on the occasion of the holiday the UNESCO Director General Koitiro Matzuura, - we are honoring the countless languages existing in the world, the cultures they reflect, the artistic impulse which people gain by their development and forms of expressions. On the International day of native language all the languages are recognized equal because each of them meets the destination of a man and represents a living heritage we need to protect’.

Under the resolution of the UNO General Assembly the year of 2010 is proclaimed the International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures.

 

Lit.: Международный день родного языка [Электронный ресурс] // Организация объединённых наций (ООН). 2015. URL: http://www.un.org/ru/events/motherlanguageday/.

 

Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:

Russian Language: [digital collection].