UNESCO Secretariat for the International Decade of Indigenous Languages

Languages are a core component of human rights and fundamental freedoms. They play a crucial role in the daily lives of people all over the world, allowing them to preserve and transmit their knowledge, values, unique modes of thinking, meaning and expression, history, cultures, traditions, and memory to the next generations, but also to participate to society and to construct their future.

Despite their immense value, the vast majority of the approximately 7000 world’s languages, used by Indigenous Peoples, are at risk of falling into desuetude. Reasons for the endangerment of languages vary across different communities and locations. Indigenous peoples worldwide are experiencing challenges connected to migration, educational disadvantage, illiteracy, assimilation and enforced relocation.

In this context, UNESCO has placed at the heart of its mandate the preservation, revitalization and support to linguistic diversity and multilingualism, both online and offline. The Organization acted as lead UN Agency for the implementation of the 2019 International Year of Indigenous Languages and now, it has been tasked to continue leading global efforts in the framework of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (IDIL2022-2032) as per United Nations General Assembly’s decision. The Decade provides a unique opportunity to engage in long-term actions and to enhance international cooperation in this area - for leaving none behind, no one outside by 2032.