WSIS TalkX: International Mother Language Day & Launch of the WSIS Forum 2022 Hackathon

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Good morning, good afternoon, good evening and welcome!

Happy International Mother Language Day! 

Let me start by thanking Bangladesh Ambassador to UN Mustafizur Rahman, and India Ambassador to UN Indra Mani Pandey for being with us today. It is very appropriate to have these countries represented as Bangladesh proposed this special day, and India probably has more mother tongues than any other country. A warm welcome also to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Mr. Jose Francisco Calí Tzay, and of course all today’s distinguished speakers. ITU is very pleased co-organize this event with UNESCO and to have my colleague Dr Tawfik Jelassi, Assistant Director General at UNESCO with us.

Our mother language is an essential part of our identity. According to a recent UNESCO report, around 6,700 languages are spoken in the world today. However, worryingly it is predicted that about half of these could disappear by the end of this century. 

One’s mother language encapsulates one’s family history and national culture. When a language vanishes, these are lost. In Wales, where I come from, we have a saying: “Cenedl heb iaith, cenedl heb galon” - a nation without a language, is a nation without a heart. 

So on this special day this year we explore the important role that technology can play in keeping these languages and cultures alive and vibrant, and by promoting multilingual learning.  

Preserving cultural and linguistic diversity and local content is at the heart of WSIS Action Line C8. ITU and UNESCO have actively engaged over many years as the lead facilitators of this Action Line to promote a multilingual Internet.  

Even though 95% of the world’s population is covered by 3G or 4G mobile broadband, billions of people are not connected. So, providing connectivity alone is not enough. We need to focus on making devices and services affordable, make people aware of the benefits of connecting, and have the skills to do so, and ensure that there is relevant content in their local language. 

And this includes the millions of people with disabilities. I am proud to say that at my first World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly as TSB Director in 2008 we adopted the first ITU Resolution on accessibility – Resolution 70. It recognizes the need to include persons with disabilities in the development of technical standards, to ensure they provide accessibility. ITU strives to provide for the participation of persons with disabilities in our work – for example by providing sign language or captioning - including at the WSIS Forum. 

Standards have a vital role to play in making ICTs more accessible, and I encourage you to follow the discussions setting the course for ITU’s future standardization work, at the WTSA starting on 1 March.

The United Nations Decade of Indigenous Languages highlights the critical situation of many indigenous languages. To support it, we will have a number of initiatives at this year’s WSIS Forum starting on 15 March including: 

I invite you all to contribute to these efforts to maximize the potential of this technology to reverse the decline in indigenous languages.

Thank you.