Conference

[Andre Cramblit]

On the occasion of the sixth International Mother Language Day,  
celebrated 21 February, UNESCO is organizing a conference on  
linguistic diversity*. Participants will include: Vigdís  
Finnbogadóttir, former President of the Republic of Iceland and  
Goodwill Ambassador of the Organization, Adama Samassekou, President  
of the African Academy of Languages, Vittorio Bo, President of Codice  
(Italy) and Daniel Prado, Director of the Terminology and Language  
Industries Department of the Latin Union (Room IV, from 10 am to 6  
pm). The conference will be opened by UNESCO Director-General  
Koïchiro Matsuura, Musa Bin Jaafar Bin Hassan, President of the  
General Conference, and Zhang Xinsheng, President of the Executive  
Board of the Organization.

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir will discuss the impact of the disappearance of  
languages, which is the subject of a documentary film, In Languages  
We Live – Voices of the World (Denmark 2005), made at her initiative.  
Directed by Billeskov Jansen and Signe Byrge Sørensen, the film  
treats the issue through a number of individual stories.

The documentary film screening will be followed by the presentation  
of a number of initiatives for the protection of linguistic  
diversity. Vittorio Bo will talk about the City of the Word project  
for a museum dedicated to languages soon be established in Italy.  
This project is an initiative of Codice, an association which creates  
and manages cultural research projects (_http://www.codicecultura.it_).

Adama Samassekou will present the activities of the African Academy  
of Languages, which was recently instituted as an organ of the  
African Union (AU), entrusted with developing continent-wide  
programmes (_http://www.acalan.org_). The AU has proclaimed 2006 as  
the Year of African languages.

Daniel Prado will present the results of the survey about  
multilingualism recently carried out by the Latin Union, an  
institution dedicated to the promotion of the common heritage and  
identities of the Latin world (_http://www.unilat.org_).

International Mother Language Day is celebrated every year on 21  
February to promote the recognition and practice of the mother  
languages of the world, and especially those of minorities. It was  
proclaimed in 1999 during the 30th session of UNESCO General Conference.