This month’s Spotlight provides a brief overview of the recently concluded Global Language Advocacy Day 2023 (#GLAD23), organized by the Global Coalition for Language Rights. This year’s GLAD theme was Language Rights Save Lives.
The Coalition works at the intersection of language, digital and human rights. Its aims are:
· To support global efforts towards increasing access to critical information/ services;
· To support equal digital representation beyond language barriers; and
· To create proactive responses to social, educational, economic and environmental challenges that include not only speakers of mainstream languages, but also Indigenous languages and underrepresented languages.
#GLAD23, celebrated officially on February 22, was a coordinated day of action that brought together language rights advocates from around the globe to raise awareness and spark meaningful conversations about the importance of language rights and linguistic justice. It featured live events, in-person and/or hybrid – many of them now available to view through recordings – along with blog posts, interviews with language rights experts, films, and other language rights initiatives.
See below for a glimpse of the diverse contributions that were part of #GLAD23.
A webinar organized by our own Language, Culture and Justice Hub on
“Interpretation in Critical Contexts: Issues of Access and Quality.” Panelists included Hub members Katie Becker, Ahmed el Khamloussy, Laura Kunreuther and Lissie Wahl Kleiser, with moderation by Leigh Swigart. Watch the recording here (in English.)
A commentary by scholar Michel de Graff, entitled “What Does Justice Sound Like?”, about linguistic challenges to justice in his native Haiti. Available in English and Kreyól Ayisyen.
A panel by Eco Interpreters on “How Interpreters Save Lives: Roundtable with a Medical and Legal Interpreter.” Moderated by Armando Moyo.
Watch the recording here (in English).
A new episode in the Woloftech podcast series by El Hadji Ibrahima Diago. The episode aims to explain to the Wolof-speaking community what language rights are and how they save lives. Woloftech also addresses the role that podcasts play in producing digital content using local languages to allow everyone to have access to technological knowledge. Listen here to the episode (in Wolof).
An interview by Katie Becker with Ana Victoria Gómez Lucas, a Mam interpreter from Guatemala, about what language rights mean to her.
Read the interview in English and in Spanish, both of which provide links to Mam language audio clips
A documentary film, Dreaming of Words,” that tells the story of Njattyela Sreedharan and his struggles to compile a dictionary connecting four major Dravidian languages: Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu. Watch the film here (subtitles in English).
An event at the School of Oriental and African Studies to launch The Handbook of Linguistic Human Rights, a landmark publication exploring the intersection of human rights and languages. The panel featured the two book editors along with contributors to the volume. Watch the recording here (in English).
An online recording from the Peshawar Literary Festival along with an article by Hub member Zubair Torwali. His topic is “How Do Major Languages Cause the Death of Minor Languages?”
Watch Torwali’s remarks in Urdu, and read his article in English.
An interview by Coalition co-chair Gerald Roche with Joe Lo Bianco on the topic of “Language Rights and Conflict.” Read the interview in English, in Burmese, and in Tamil.
https://www.coalitionforlanguagerights.org/glad23.