Language Matters | Migration: why global language rights matter
The UN General Assembly’s 1948 Declaration of Human Rights mentions ‘language’ just once but language rights are particularly relevant in a world where millions of people are on the move
Today is International Migrants Day, as inaugurated by the United Nations General Assembly in 2000 to mark the adoption, on December 18, 1990, of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
Decades on, transnational migration is ever more prevalent – with the UN estimating 244 million people fall into the category – and attracts increasingly negative attention in public discourse and policy.
December 10 marked Human Rights Day, observed annually to commemorate the General Assembly’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, recognising our basic rights as humans: the rights of the individual, such as the right to life; the rights of the individual in civil and political society, such as freedom of movement; spiritual, public and political freedoms, such as freedom of thought and religion; and social, economic and cultural rights, such as the right to health and education.
“Language” is mentioned just once: “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, or other status.”