ODUMUNC 2020 Issue Brief for the GA Third Committee (SOCHUM)

Protecting and Preserving

ODU Model United Nations

Introduction: When and How? countries have a political movement to make one , typically the language of the dominant

group, the country’s only legal language. To

their advocates, a single legal language is a way Of some 6,500 to 7,000 languages and major to preserve power and their vision of society.2 dialects spoken world-wide, roughly 2,700 are in danger of disappearing completely as their few remaining speakers die. With each loss, the entire world loses. Every language offers a unique way of understanding social affairs and humanity’s relationship with the universe, making the death of language a loss for all the world’s peoples. Only when a language and are officially recognized and promoted, moreover, can their speakers fully join their larger communities. Promoting dying languages then becomes essential to assuring the rights of marginalized groups, their social equality and 1 inclusion. Greater recognition for previously repressed or Agreeing on the promotion of indigenous marginalized ethnic groups can be seen as a languages and cultures is easy in the abstract. threat to national unification. This outlook is However, there are harsh problems to be especially common in countries that only overcome before progress becomes possible. For recently unified, whose borders are weak or some countries, the ‘whether’ question remains contested, and where loyalty to groups—ethnic, lively. Many countries have an official ‘leading’ religious, tribal or regional—is stronger than or dominant culture; residents are expected to loyalty to the state. But pressure to de- use one language in public especially. Often the nationalize minority languages and cultures is law forbids the use of other languages in increasingly found even in wealthy countries education, publication, or the media, sometimes like China, Germany and the United States it is illegal even in private settings. Many

1 Harbeck, James. ‘Why do we fight so hard to 2 Brice, Brandon, ’Why English should be the official preserve endangered languages?’ The Week, 2 March language of the United States’, Washington Times, 31 2015, https://theweek.com/articles/541609/fight- December 2014, hard-preserve-endangeredlanguages ; https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/dec/31 Newnum, Graham .‘Why Language Preservation /why-english-should-be-official-language-united-sta/ Matters (According to Experts)’, Cyracom, 28 ; Hulse, Carl, ‘Senate votes to set English as national August 2018, http://blog.cyracom.com/why- language’, New York Times, 19 May 2006, language-preservation-matters-according-to-experts https://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/washington/19 immig.html

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and language groups in power, and sometimes There is widespread acceptance of the most they will fight to ensure equal language rights liberal goals of language and culture are denied to their opponents. preservation, recognizing the full breadth of human experience and helping marginalized Governments facing such difficulties typically groups from being completely absorbed by relied for years on the power of one linguistic larger groups, enriching knowledge and respect group and repressed others. For them, sharing for our fellow man. But there is less agreement linguistic recognition is tantamount to losing about the obligations of states for how best to power. It means not only granting widespread implement such policies. use of a different language, but also allowing its speakers to compete for political power. Such Above all, for many countries, the essential governments can be expected to be hesitant to question of policies to protect languages and support reforms of the kind UNESCO is preserve cultures is who pays? For example, considering here. They may accept such reforms creating parallel educational systems amd in principle, but deny them in practice. Above guaranteeing transactions in official institutions all, they can be expected to insist that like the courts and hospitals, costs money. If application of such reforms be left entirely to private business and religious institutions are their own domestic governments. expected to do the same, costs rise even faster.

But a more fundamental problem often is how The Scale of the Problem recognition affects domestic political power.

And in many states, therein lies the fundamental Today, the top ten languages in the world are the political objections to measures that might primary dialects of half the world’s population. disrupt ethnic-political power balances, Can language diversity be preserved, or are we potentially challenging the authority and on a path to becoming a monolingual species? privileges of particular groups. The issue is Over the past century alone, around 400 especially sensitive where it takes on political languages – about one every three months – dimensions. In such situations, recognizing a have gone extinct, and most linguists estimate language is not politically neutral. that 50 percent of the world’s remaining 6,500 to

7,000 languages will be gone by the end of this And the effects of ending repression or century. Some anthropologists and linguists marginalization can be unpredictable or even believe the loss could be closer to 90 percent. dangerous. In countries with delicate ethnic Since there are so many imperiled languages, it balances, such as much of Africa, but also is impossible to label just one as the rarest or Southeast Asia, privileging particular languages most endangered, but at least 100 around the can be tantamount to political power-sharing, as world have only a handful of speakers – from previously marginalized groups—denied a role Ainu in Japan to Yagan in Chile. UNESCO's in government or political power—are Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger lists acknowledged as political equals. Under such 576 as critically endangered, with thousands circumstances, forcing recognition of a language more categorized as endangered or threatened. can directly affect domestic power balances, The highest numbers occur in the Americas. 3 possibly leading to conflict and violence. Recognition can be denied and fought by ethnic

3 Nuwer, Rachel. ‘Languages: why we must save 2014 http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140606- dying tongues’, BBC News, 6 June why-we-must-save-dying-languages

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languages. In many countries, such as Switzerland and Nordic States, minority languages have given protected status. Subsidies encourage publications and media use of these languages. Alternative schooling in protected languages also has been made available and non- minority students are encouraged to master them.

It is a Political Problem

The problems of endangered languages and cultures cannot be separated from politics. Disappearance is closely associated with lack of political rights. Languages and cultured decline because people cannot achieve basic goals—like Languages usually reach the point of crisis after participating in the economy, educating their being displaced by a socially, politically and children, finding health care, or going to court— economically dominant one, as linguists put it. in their native language. Assimilation with the In this scenario, the majority speaks another politically privileged language and culture is language – English, Mandarin, Swahili – so essential to getting things done. speaking that language is key to accessing jobs, education and opportunities. Sometimes, The dominant language often belongs to the especially in immigrant communities, parents majority of the population, but not always. In will decide not to teach their children their many countries, minority groups dominate heritage language, perceiving it as a potential politics and make their culture or language the hindrance to their children’s success in life. key to getting things done, forcing the majority to adapt to their ways. Speakers of minority languages have suffered a long history of persecution. Well into the Indigenous groups tend to be especially twentieth century, many Native American vulnerable to loss of language and culture. They children in Canada and the United States, for usually are political weak, under-represented in example, were sent to boarding schools, where educational institutions, government, media and they were often forbidden to speak their native business. Often systematic policies are language. Today, many English-speaking responsible for their exclusion. In the nineteenth Americans are still hostile towards non-English and twentieth Centuries, it was common for speakers. Extreme persecution still happens as indigenous languages to be legally prohibited, well. In 2014, a linguist in China was arrested banned from public use, illegal in courts, and for trying to open schools that taught his native forbidden in schools and publication. language, Uighur.4 While these policies of legal prohibition are Some countries, mostly wealthier states in the declining, the affects often remain. For example, global north, are far ahead on protection of when they are admitted to the corridors of

4 Ibid.

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power, members of indigenous groups usually diversity. But they do not require financial are expected to speak majority languages. So, investment in language survival and education, the fundamental issue is the broader program of nor do they create financial incentives for the rights of indigenous people and marginalized governments to act aggressive to slow language groups. disappearance.

Effective solutions to problems of disappearing Generally, the UN does not pressure indigenous and minority languages and cultures governments to become more inclusive toward often mean extending political rights, which excluded and marginalized groups, sailing to dominant groups may oppose. effectively push for the inclusion of previously repressed people, their languages and cultures, the mainstream of national politics, education The Role of the UN and governance. To ensure swift progress, to preserve as many endangered languages as Current measures are passive: UN encourages possible, requires stronger measures, but there is governments to take action, but concentrating on sharp disagreement on what those should be. shaping international norms, they do not create strong incentives for governments to reverse their policies of discrimination. Country and Block Positions

Under the 2019 Year of Indigenous Languages, China and Russia: For countries preoccupied UN Member States are encouraged to promote with problems of national unity, like China and action in five main areas of the UNESCO Russia, minority rights are a delicate issue. Strategy for the Safeguarding of Endangered There is widespread interest and often domestic Languages: legal commitment, to preserving indigenous languages and cultures, but nationalist 1. Increasing understanding, reconciliation governments like China and Russia also expect and international cooperation all residents to be fully functional in the 2. Creation of favorable conditions for dominant linguistic culture; Mandarin Chinese knowledge-sharing and dissemination of and Russian, respectively. They support good practices about indigenous measures to do more to help endangered languages languages and cultures but insist that policies be 3. Integration of indigenous languages into strictly voluntary for Member States. standard-settings 4. Empowerment through capacity- European Union (EU): The 28 Member States building of the European Union share a consensus on the 5. Growth and development through importance of preserving indigenous and elaboration of new knowledge5 minority languages and cultures. Increasingly, they favor legal protection requirements and Such measures encourage preservation by support for education in these languages, such as promoting a normative expectation of linguistic Sami in Northern European countries. 6 In some

5 ‘International Day of the World's Indigenous 6 Henrik, Magga Ole and Skutnabb-Kangas Tove, Peoples, 9 August,’ United Nations, n.d., ‘The Saami languages: the present and the future’, http://www.un.org/en/events/indigenousday/ Culture Survival, June 2011, https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural

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cases, such as the United Kingdom, they have Cultural Diversity and the Strategy for the supported political devolution, or regionalism, Safeguarding of Endangered Languages. allowing regional communities to be self- governing in their local language, such as Welsh But members for this block are former colonial in Wales.7 But Europe still has major language states which only recently gained independence. issues to resolve, especially minority languages For a great many, building national unity is the spread through the country, such as Finnish highest priority. How to reconcile national unity within Sweden, German speakers in Italy, or with minority rights is a problem few can solve Hungarian minorities in Central Europe.8 easily. Many have been accused of suppressing the rights of their minorities, denying linguistic minorities voting rights or political power, insisting that education be in a ‘national’ language, and suppressing media in non-national languages.

Proposals for Action

For Member States, it is easiest to agree on principles, especially if they are diluted to permit each country to interpret and apply them as they will. Stressing principles is a natural path. What is tougher is finding agreement for These issues can be sensitive even in Europe, more binding commitments. Active measures are where minority rights like Hungarian speakers the great untried area for language preservation can be part of larger issues of nationalism and reform. Possibilities include: expanding national influence. What is less controversial for the European Union is support • Create financial rewards for countries for indigenous and minority languages that reduce the rate of language elsewhere in the world, especially in less disappearance. developed countries in need of expertise and financial assistance. • Establish aid programs to fund propagation of underutilized languages, Non-Aligned Movement (NAM): For the 120 in education, media, legal systems and Member States of the UN’s largest voting bloc, courts, and governance. linguistic legacies are a tricky issue. The NAM strongly support the Universal Declaration on

-survival-quarterly/saami-languages-present-and- 8 Fellman, Fredrika, Liliia Makashova and Viktoriia future Zhuhan, ‘Sweden's Finns fear minority language 7 Pierce Jones, Ann Elisabeth, Tony Coslett and Seán rights are under threat’, Guardian, 13 March 2018, Starrs, ‘The long struggle for the right to speak the https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/13/sw Welsh and Irish languages’, Guardian, 23 June 2017, edens-finns-fear-minority-language-rights-are-under- https://www.theguardian.com/uk- threat news/2017/jun/23/the-long-struggle-for-the-right-to- speak-the-welsh-and-irish-languages

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• Require governments to give and cultures, but the specific issues of indigenous languages fully equal legal Israeli treatment of its Arab residents status in education and the courts. and the rights of people of the Israeli Occupied Palestinian Territories.9 • Require the minority language be Criticizing Israel is one area where most taught as primary or equal languages Member States often find cooperation in schools so that all students in home and agreement easiest. In this case for regions learn an indigenous or minority failing to elevate Arabic to equal status language, require all official legal as Hebrew in its governance. Support is documents, and all court proceedings to strongest among the Member States of be available in dying languages. the NAM and especially its Arab Member States. Opposition is most • Require all printed material to include extreme from the United States, which translation into at least one indigenous made support for Israel the center of its or minority language. foreign policy under President Trump. Opposition also comes from the • Require members of majority groups Member States of the European Union, to be at least partially educated in who regard the focus on Israel as a indigenous or minority languages in distraction from more ambitious work. schools. There is a cost to such priorities, since it • Encourage political devolution, such confirms a bias in the UN that its as regional self-rule, for indigenous and critics—led by the United States—use to minority peoples. criticize the organization and its work. The preoccupation with Israel was • Focus on Israel: For many Member President Trump’s justification for withdrawing the United States from States, an easy course of action is to 10 focus not on general issues of languages UNESCO in 2018.

9 UNESCO Adopts New Resolutions on Palestine’, http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=80FFQ0a105071 IMEMC News, 11 October 2018, 627694a80FFQ0 http://imemc.org/article/unesco-adopts-new- 10 Gardiner Harris and Steven Erlanger, ‘U.S. will resolutions-on-palestine/ ; ‘Newspapers review: withdraw from Unesco, Citing Its ‘Anti-Israel Bias’, UNESCO’s resolutions on Occupied Palestine focus New York Times, 12 October 2018, of dailies’, WAFA, 11 October 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/12/us/politics/tru mp-unesco-withdrawal.html

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