UN launches 10-year survival plan for indigenous languages at risk

New York: The United Nations has launched the International Decade of Indigenous Languages to help them survive, and protect them from extinction. Preserving their languages is “not only important for them, but for all humanity,” said UN General Assembly President Csaba Korosi on Friday.

“With each indigenous language that goes extinct, so too goes the thought: the culture, tradition and knowledge it bears. That matters because we are in dire need of a radical transformation in the way we relate to our environment,” he said.

According to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, indigenous people speak more than 4,000 of the world’s roughly 6,700 languages. However, conservative estimates indicate that more than half of all languages will become extinct by the end of this century.

Korosi recently returned from the UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal and left convinced that “if we are to successfully protect nature, we must listen to indigenous peoples, and we must do so in their own languages.”

Indigenous peoples are guardians to almost 80 percent of the world’s remaining biodiversity, he said, citing data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

“Yet every two weeks, an indigenous language dies,” he said. “This should ring our alarms.”

The General Assembly president urged countries to work with indigenous communities to safeguard their rights, such as access to education and resources in their native languages, and to ensure that they and their knowledge are not exploited.

“And perhaps most importantly, meaningfully consult indigenous peoples, engaging with them in every stage of decision-making processes,” he advised.