Background Guide 
UNESCO 
Safeguarding endangered languages and dialects 
 

South Indian Model United Nations 

2018 Conference 

 
 

Note from the executive board 

Hello, respected delegates.  

It  is  indeed  a  great  honor  to  welcome  you  all  to  the  United  Nations  Educational,  Scientific  and 
Cultural  Organization  at  South  Indian  Model  United  Nations  2018.  We  congratulate  you  on  your 
decision  for  being  a  part  of  the  UNESCO.  The  executive  board  will  leave  no  stone  unturned  to 
assure quality debate in the committee. 

To  the  veterans  of  MUN,  we  promise  you a very enriching debate that you’ve never experienced 

before and to the newcomers, we are really excited to be a part of your maiden voyage. 

Safeguarding  Endangered  Languages  and  Dialects  is  an  agenda  with  a  wide  scope  of  debate. 
The  agenda  was  discussed  in  UNESCO  in  the  year  2003.Some  measures  were  suggested  and 
were  then  implemented.  However,  the  steps  suggested  were  not  sufficient  enough  to  solve  the 
issue  entirely,  hence  in  this  edition  of SIMUN18, we will review the steps taken, deliberate further 
and come up with more solutions to the problem at hand. It will be a good learning experience for 
the  first  timers  as  it  will  assist  in  getting  insights  into  the  functioning  of  the  United  Nations.  The 
study  guide  just  gives  the  gist  of  the  agenda  and  does  not  exhaust it. Also, any point mentioned 
in the study guide cannot be used to substantiate the speeches of the delegates. 

You  are  the  representative  of  your  allotted  country  and  it  is  our  hope  that  you  put  in 
wholehearted  efforts  to  research  and  comprehensively  grasp  all  important  facets  of  the  diverse 
agenda. All the delegates should be prepared well in order to make the debate productive. 

Reuters,  Government  Reports,  UN  reports  shall  be  considered  as  credential  proofs in committee 
while  any  further  reports  from  Regional/International  News  Agencies  shall  be  considered  as 
persuasive proof. 

Delegates  will  be  allowed  to  bring  laptops,  tablets  or  any  other  electronic  devices to the council 
but will not be allowed to access the internet when the lines of communication will be closed. We, 
however, will appreciate delegates bringing hard copies of their research. 

In  the  end,  have  fun  in  the  committee  and make yourself comfortable without getting intimidated 

by  your  Executive  Board  and  fellow delegates which shall ensure better flow of debate. Feel free 
to contact us in case of any doubts or discrepancies. 

Samarth Kapur - ​samarthkapur@live.com 

Akshay Anilkumar - ​mail2akshay1003@gmail.com 

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Introduction 
UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is responsible for 
coordinating international cooperation in education, science, culture, and communication. It 
strengthens the ties between nations and societies and mobilizes the wider public so that each 
child and citizen: 

● has access to quality education; a basic human right and an indispensable prerequisite for 
sustainable development; 
● may grow and live in a cultural environment rich in diversity and dialogue, where heritage 
serves as a bridge between generations and peoples; 
● can fully benefit from scientific advances; 
● and can enjoy full freedom of expression; the basis of democracy, development and 
human dignity. 

UNESCO's messages are of increasing importance today, in a globalized world where 

interconnections and diversity must serve as opportunities to build peace in the minds of men 
and women. 

History 
As early as 1942, in wartime, the governments of the European countries, which were confronting 
Nazi Germany and its allies, met in the United Kingdom for the Conference of Allied Ministers of 
Education (CAME). The Second World War was far from over, yet those countries were looking for 
ways and means to reconstruct their systems of education once peace was restored. Very 
quickly, the project gained momentum and soon took on a universal note. New governments, 
including that of the United States, decided to join in. 

Upon the proposal of CAME, a United Nations Conference for the establishment of an 
educational and cultural organization (ECO/CONF) was convened in London from 1 to 16 
November 1945. Scarcely had the war ended when the conference opened. It gathered together 
the representatives of forty-four countries who decided to create an organization that would 
embody a genuine culture of peace. In their eyes, the new organization must establish the 
“intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind” and, in so doing, prevent the outbreak of another 
world war. 

At the end of the conference, thirty-seven countries founded the United Nations Educational, 
Scientific and Cultural Organization. The Constitution of UNESCO, signed on 16 November 1945, 

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came into force on 4 November 1946 after ratification by twenty countries: Australia, Brazil, 
Canada, China, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, France, Greece, India, 
Lebanon, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom and 
United States. The first session of the General Conference of UNESCO was held in Paris from 19 
November to 10 December 1946 with the participation of representatives from 30 governments 
entitled to vote. 

Origins of UNESCO 
The main predecessors of UNESCO were: 

● The International Committee of Intellectual Co-operation (CICI), Geneva 1922-1946, and its 
executing agency, the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (IICI), Paris, 
1925-1946; 
● The International Bureau of Education (IBE), Geneva, 1925-1968; since 1969 IBE has been 
part of the UNESCO Secretariat under its own statutes. 

Governing Bodies 
The General Conference 

The General Conference consists of the representatives of UNESCO's the Member States. It 
meets every two years and is attended by the Member States and Associate Members, together 
with observers from non-Member States, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental 
organizations (NGOs). Each country has one vote, irrespective of its size or the extent of its 
contribution to the budget. 

The General Conference determines the policies and the main lines of work of the Organization. 
Its duty is to set the programmes and the budget of UNESCO. It also elects the Members of the 
Executive Board and appoints, every four years, the Director-General. The working languages of 
the General Conference are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. 

The Executive Board 

The Executive Board ensures the overall management of UNESCO. It prepares the work of the 
General Conference and sees that its decisions are properly carried out. The functions and 
responsibilities of the Executive Board are derived primarily from the Constitution and from rules 
or directives laid down by the General Conference. 

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Every two years the General Conference assigns specific tasks to the Board. Other functions 
stem from agreements concluded between UNESCO and the United Nations, the specialized UN 
agencies, and other intergovernmental organizations. 

The Executive Board’s fifty-eight members are elected by the General Conference. The choice of 
these representatives is largely a matter of the diversity of the cultures they represent, as well as 
their geographic origin. Skillful negotiations may be needed before a balance is reached among 
the different regions of the world in a way that will reflect the universality of the Organization. The 
Executive Board meets twice a year.  

Introduction to the agenda 

Languages, with their complex implications for identity, communication, social integration, 
education, and development, are of strategic importance for people and planet. Yet, due to 
globalization processes, they are increasingly under threat or disappearing altogether. When 
languages fade, so does the world’s rich tapestry of cultural diversity. Opportunities, traditions, 
memory, unique modes of thinking and expression – valuable resources for ensuring a better 
future are also lost. 

In this context, it is urgent to take action to promote multilingualism, in other words, to encourage 
the development of coherent regional and national language policies which give an opportunity 
for the appropriate and harmonious use of languages in a given community and country. Such 
policies promote measures allowing each speaker community to use its mother tongue in private 
and public domains of language use and enabling the speakers to learn and use additional 
languages: local, national and international. Mother-tongue speakers of national or international 
languages should be encouraged to learn and use other languages of the country and regional 
and international languages. 

The 2002 edition of the Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing, published by 
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), reported that half 
of the 6,000 or so languages spoken in the world are endangered, and with them an 
irreplaceable dimension of our knowledge and understanding of human thought. The process 
whereby languages are disappearing is a continual one and not a new phenomenon. However, 
the past 30 years or so have seen a dramatic increase in the disappearance rate of languages. 

The causes of this phenomenon are multiple and complex. People tend to abandon their native 
tongues either because they belong to small groups immersed in different or unfriendly cultural 
and linguistic environments, or because they come into contact with an invasive or economically 
stronger culture. In such situations, adults, in full disregard of their own language, encourage 

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children to learn the language of the dominant culture, not only to become competitive in the 
labor market but also to acquire social status. 

By adopting the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity in 2001, the General 
Conference reaffirmed the need for urgent action to promote linguistic and cultural diversity, 
notably through safeguarding the linguistic heritage, fostering the learning of several languages 
from the youngest age and promoting linguistic diversity in cyberspace. 

While there is no definite threshold for identifying a language as endangered, UNESCO’s 2003 
document entitled Language vitality and endangerment outlines nine factors for determining 
language vitality: 

● Intergenerational language transmission 

● The absolute number of speakers 

● The proportion of speakers existing within the total (global) population 

● Language use within existing contexts and domains 

● Response to language use in new domains and media 

● Availability of materials for language education and literacy 

● Government and institutional language policies 

● Community attitudes toward their language 

● Amount and quality of documentation 

Causes of language endangerment 

Many factors can contribute towards language loss, varying with local circumstances, factors 
involving economy, politics, demography, geography, history, religion, education, social status, 
technology, globalization, and in the attitudes of particular speakers. While it is beyond the scope 
of this article to discuss details of all the possible causes of language endangerment, a few 
general factors stand out. 

● Economic factors​ are often considered telling as causes for language endangerment. 
They include the lack of economic opportunities, on-going industrialization, rapid 
economic transformations, shifts in work patterns, migrant labor, resource depletion, 
forced changes in subsistence patterns, communication with outside regions, 

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resettlement, dispersion, migration, destruction of habitat, and globalization, among 

others. 
● Political factors​ affect the vitality of languages all over the world. These involve 
discrimination, repression (as in the boarding schools for North American Indians and 
Australian Aborigines, where the use of native languages was forbidden and punished), 
official language policies, and so forth. 
● Subjective attitudes​ (motivation) of the speakers towards the languages under threat and 
the national languages that surround them affect language vitality. Among these factors 
are the symbolism of the dominant language (e.g., as a political symbol of nation; as a 
symbol of civilization, of progress, the future vs. the past, of peasants, compassion, and 
similar groups; as a cultural symbol of international and urban vs. local and rural), and the 
stigmatization of a local language (low prestige of the endangered language). 
● Institutional support​ is considered essential for assuring the vitality of a language. Its 
absence can influence speakers to shift away from a minority language. Institutional 
support includes representation in schools, churches, government, and the media. 

Each of these factors affects the access new speakers, particularly younger generations, have to 
a local, or minority, language. Lack of access can limit the ability to acquire the language and can 
drastically discourage speakers from using or learning the endangered language, speeding 
language shift. In many situations, multiple factors working together affect a language’s vitality. 
These situations include: military service; marriage patterns; rapid population collapse; lack of 
physical proximity among speakers; the desire for literacy; a law of compulsory education in a 
specific language; a lack of social cohesion among speakers; cultural destruction (e.g., war, 
slavery, famine, epidemics); neglect (education offered in only the dominant language); lack of 
opportunity to practice the language at home; parents’ lack of proficiency in the native language; 
poor teaching (e.g., of isolated vocabulary rather than communication skills); parents switching to 
the dominant language to ease children’s success at school. 

Speakers of endangered languages can sometimes inadvertently increase its endangerment. For 
example, in demands for language purity, some speakers may insist on correcting mistakes made 
by novice learners of the language. This discourages learners who may consequently abandon 
the effort to learn the language. Similarly, speakers of a language might not actively do anything 
to reverse language shift and may wrongly assume that the presence of classes on the language 
in schools is sufficient to revive or strengthen the language. The mere presence of classes on the 
language in schools seldom works to retard or reverse language shift. 

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Language death 
Language death is a process that affects speech communities where the level of language 
variety is decreased, eventually resulting in no native or fluent speakers. 

Similarly, the most common process leading to language death is one in which a community of 
speakers of one language becomes bilingual in another language and gradually shifts allegiance 
language the second language until they cause to use their original(heritage) language. This is a 
process of assimilation which may be voluntary or may be forced upon a population. Speakers of 
some languages particularly regional or minority languages may decide to abandon them based 
on economic or utilitarian grounds, in favor of language regarded as having greater utility or 
prestige. 

A language is often declared to dead even before the last native speakers of the language die. If 
there are only a few elderly speakers of a language remains and they no longer use that 
language for communication then the language is effectively dead.  

What happens when a language dies? 

The grimmest predictions have 90 percent of the world’s languages dying out by the end of this 
century. Although this might not seem important in the day-to-day life of an English speaker with 
no personal ties to the culture in which they’re spoken, language loss matters. Here’s what we all 
lose: 

1. We lose “The expression of a unique vision of what it means to be human” 

2. We lose memory of the planet’s many histories and cultures. 

3. We lose some of the best local resources for combating environmental threats 

4. Some people lose their mother tongue. 

Language endangerment in India 

A recent UNESCO report indicates that India has the largest number of endangered languages in 
the world. A matter of concern, besides the absolute numbers, is the distribution of these 
endangered languages across a number of speakers. The languages under threat include both 
scheduled, non-scheduled as well as official languages of some of the states. Policies for 
protecting and promoting the entire range of endangered languages are needed if the linguistic 
diversity of India is to be preserved. 

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The Indian Situation The Atlas identifies 196 languages that are endangered in India, which 
comprise 84 languages that are “unsafe”, 62 languages that are “definitely endangered” and six 
and 33 languages that are respectively “severely” and “critically” endangered. Nine languages – 
Ahom, Aimol, Andro, Chairel, Kolhreng, Rangkas, Sengmai, Tarao, and Tolcha – have become 
extinct in India from the 1950s. Though these endangered languages are spread across the 
entire country there is some degree of concentration, with many of these languages being 
located in the north-east as well as the tribal belts of West Bengal and Orissa and in Himachal 
Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand. These languages are also diverse in terms of the 
number of speakers, who range from zero to 27.14 lakhs (Gondi) as per the 2001 Census. Besides 
the aspect of having the highest number of endangered languages, the distribution of these 196 
languages as per the number of speakers is also a matter of concern. In the two categories with 
the least degree of vitality, that is, “critically” and “severely” endangered, 28 out 37 languages 
(75%) have less than 5,000 speakers (Table 2). In the same two categories, 92% of the languages 
have less than 20,000 speakers. On the other hand, in the category which has the highest vitality 
within the endangerment schema, viz, “unsafe”, about 85% of languages have more than 20,000 
speakers. The Atlas incorporates the “absolute number of speakers” as one of nine factors in 
constructing its endangerment framework because a very small population is especially 
vulnerable to extinction as a result of both natural disasters such as earthquakes, epidemics or 
even tsunamis as well as man-made causes such as genocide or war. It is a matter for 
investigation as to whether the number of speakers in almost all the “critically” and “severely” 
endangered languages are so low because these languages are well advanced within the 
trajectory of becoming extinct or whether these languages had a very low number of speakers, to 
begin with. In either case, there is clearly a need for the initiation of remedial policies to protect 
and promote these endangered languages. 

The Government of India has initiated a Scheme known as “Protection and Preservation of 
Endangered Languages of India”. Under this Scheme, the Central Institute of Indian Languages 
(CIIL), Mysore works on protection, preservation, and documentation of all the mother 
tongues/languages of India spoken by less than 10,000 speakers keeping in mind the degree of 
endangerment and reduction in the domains of usage. 

Language endangerment in Europe 

The European Council’s Resolution of the 21 November 2008 on a European strategy for 
multilingualism notes that: ‘-linguistic and cultural diversity is part and parcel of the European 
identity; it is at once a shared heritage, a wealth, a challenge and an asset for Europe.’ It also 
states that ‘the promotion of less widely used European languages represents an important 
contribution to multilingualism (Council Resolution of 21 Nov 2008 on a European Strategy for 
Multilingualism). It is widely agreed that languages are an extremely rich part of Europe’s cultural 

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heritage. Languages express identity and provide a link for speakers of a language with their 
past, present, and future. Embedded within languages there is a great deal of knowledge about 
the world and the human experience. When languages become extinct, this knowledge is lost. 

Between six and seven thousand languages are spoken in the world today (Ethnologue). 97% of 
the world’s people speak about 4% of the world’s languages and, conversely, about 96% of the 
world’s languages are spoken by 3% of the world’s people (Bernard 1996). Only 3% of the world’s 
languages are indigenous to Europe. According to the Atlas of the World’s Languages (UNESCO), 
there are 128 languages within the European Union that are considered to be endangered. All 
languages that are treated as a separate language, and not a dialect, have their own ISO- Code. 

The EU, although it has limited influence because educational and language policies are the 
responsibility of individual Member States, notes that it is committed to safeguarding linguistic 
diversity and promoting knowledge of languages. The European Charter for Regional or Minority 
Languages (ECRML) is a European treaty adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of 
Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe. The Charter 
provides a large number of different actions which states can take to protect and promote 
regional and minority languages. There are two levels of protection—all signatories are required 
to apply the lower level of protection to qualifying languages. Signatories may also further 
declare that a qualifying language or languages will benefit from the higher level of protection, 
which lists a range of actions. From this list, states must agree to undertake at least 35 actions. 
The Charter doesn’t deal specifically with languages under the heading endangered languages 
but many of the endangered languages of Europe fall into the category of receiving the lower 
levels of protection. 

In 2011 the Committee of Regions noted in a Policy recommendation that there is a need for: ‘a 
specific policy on linguistic minorities that is adequately funded and underpinned by a firmer legal 
basis;’ Linguistic diversity and language learning has been significantly promoted in the context 
of multilingualism in Europe over the past decade. Regional and minority languages have also 
been promoted in this context. Following a request from the European Parliament, the 
Commission launched a feasibility study on the possible creation of a European Agency for 
Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity. The European Commission’s response was that it 
preferred to see networks being established and funding for three networks which deal with 
RML’s has been provided almost continuously since 2008. These include the NPLD, FUEN, and 
Mercator research networks. At present, the EU has placed its main emphasis, in the context of 
multilingualism and the generation of new ideas and policy suggestions, on the establishment of 
the Civil Society Platform on Multilingualism. Some Member States, mainly at the regional 
governmental level, have developed well-structured strategic plans for the promotion and 
safeguarding of their languages. This is especially developed in the regions of Spain and the UK. 

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The support provided by the European Union for linguistic diversity 

In the context of subsidiarity, the primary responsibility for minority and regional languages rest 
with the member states of the EU. However, the EU has a role in terms of supporting the states in 
the promotion of RML’s. The international community, in general, has noted the importance of 
cultural and linguistic diversity and that its preservation being an issue which deserves protection 
and support. Linguistic diversity is therefore viewed in the context of language rights but it is also 
seen as a cultural asset for the EU. The EU has in place a range of legal documentation and 
pronouncements that make this clear. The latest legal documentation is the Lisbon Treaty that 
was signed in 2007 and entered into force in 2009. In the Treaty Article 2:3 it states that the EU 
‘shall respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity, and shall ensure that Europe's cultural 
heritage is safeguarded and enhanced. ‘The consolidated version of the Treaty Establishing the 
European Community (2012), article 167 which states that ‘the Union shall contribute to the 
flowering of the cultures of the Member States while respecting their national and regional 
diversity and at the same time bringing the common cultural heritage to the fore. And that the 
community shall take cultural aspects into account in its actions under other provisions of the 
Treaties, in particular in order to respect and to promote the diversity of its cultures'. The Charter 
of Fundamental Rights for the European Union, article 21 and 22 states that 'any discrimination 
based on any grounds such as language, membership of a national minority shall be prohibited. 

UNESCO’s activities on endangered languages 

Activities with regard to the promotion of multilingualism are carried out by all relevant UNESCO 
Sectors (Education, Communication, Culture and Social and Human Sciences) and in various 
intersectoral projects. In this presentation, I will focus on UNESCO’s activities for the safeguarding 
of endangered languages. 

The Endangered Languages Programme is one of the main activities of the Intangible Heritage 
Section of UNESCO’s sector for Culture. Four priority lines of action have been identified for the 
programme: 

A. awareness-raising of language endangerment (among decision-makers, the media, 

speakers of dominant languages, non-dominant groups, etc.), and of the need to 
safeguard linguistic diversity: 

a. An example of awareness-raising is the partnership between UNESCO, UN Works, 

and Discovery Communications, INC. A series of 20 ultra-short programmes on 
various endangered languages throughout the world has been produced and is 
broadcast to over 100 million viewers internationally on Discovery Channel. 
b. Another example is the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of 
Disappearing (1996, 2001) which aroused vivid interest among scholars and 

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journalists, and became a reference book for the general public.). After two paper 
versions of the UNESCO Atlas, the information collected on a large number of 
endangered languages in all parts of the world will now be available online, 
starting with the African continent. This online edition has been developed as an 
inter-sectoral initiative (Culture and Communication and Information), in the 
framework of the Endangered Languages and Multilingualism in Cyberspace 
programmes of UNESCO [6]. 
c. The main line of action “Enhancing the linkages between biological and cultural 
diversity as a key basis for sustainable development”, which involves the Natural 
Sciences Sector and the Culture Sector of UNESCO, pays due attention to 
studying the relevance of linguistic diversity for the transmission of traditional 
knowledge and the preservation of biological diversity. 

B. local capacity-building and promotion of language policies 

a. Several forums organized by UNESCO in the 1990s addressed capacity-building 

and promotion of language policies in the Member States (with a focus on Africa). 
For example, the intergovernmental conference on language policies in Africa 
held in Harare in 1997, with a special focus on indigenous languages and 
multilingualism. In 2004, the initiative “Capacity-building for safeguarding 
languages and oral traditions and expressions in Sub-Saharan Africa” has been 
launched. [7] 

b. In the current biennium (2004/2005), 5 pilot projects are directly implemented by 
local NGOs and researchers and 14 national and sub-regional capacity-building 
projects have been decentralized to UNESCO field offices throughout the world 
(with a special focus on Africa and Asia/Pacific). One example is the project 
“Safeguarding endangered languages of indigenous peoples of Siberia” 
coordinated by the UNESCO Moscow Office. One element of the project is this 
roundtable on endangered languages of the indigenous peoples of Siberia. The 
aims of the roundtable are to analyze the current status and problems of the 
endangered languages of indigenous peoples of Siberia and discuss appropriate 
safeguarding measures. Additional activities to be carried out in the framework of 
this project include the creation of a bilingual English/Russian database on 
endangered languages in Siberia, its publication on a DVD (together with the 
bilingual English/Russian proceedings of the Roundtable) and the creation of an 
interactive portal on endangered languages of Siberian peoples on the website of 
the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of Russian Academy of Sciences 
(RAS) (linked to the UNESCO Moscow website). 

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C. mobilization of international cooperation 

a. In March 2003, UNESCO brought together experts from all over the world to 
enhance the Organization’s action in the field of endangered languages. The goal 
was to define and reinforce UNESCO’s role in supporting the world’s endangered 
languages. The meeting aimed at establishing criteria to assess language 
endangerment, reviewing the state of languages in various regions of the world, 
proposing to UNESCO’s Director-General mechanisms and strategies to safeguard 
endangered languages and to maintain and promote linguistic and cultural 
diversity. 

Expert meeting on safeguarding endangered languages 

UNESCO organized this meeting (co-sponsored by the Netherlands National Commission for 
UNESCO) in order to define and reinforce its role in safeguarding the world’s endangered 
languages. 

UNESCO organized this meeting (co-sponsored by the Netherlands National Commission for 
UNESCO) in order to define and reinforce its role in safeguarding the world’s endangered 
languages. Some seventy international experts, representatives of speech communities and 
NGOs from all over the world took part in this meeting. During the three days of the meeting, the 
experts: 

1. reviewed, region by region, the existing research programs, and related initiatives, as well 
as best practices for safeguarding and promoting endangered languages; 
2. discussed strategies and possibilities for raising international awareness and promoting 
international co-operation in this field; 
3. studied the role of UNESCO in safeguarding the world’s endangered languages as 
compared with that of other organizations (governmental, non-governmental and 
academic); 
4. Suggested concrete proposals for UNESCO activities in the field of safeguarding 
endangered languages in the near future, to start with the next biennium (2004 - 2005).  

The proposals were approved by the participants on the last day of the meeting, as 
“Recommendations to UNESCO for Action Plans on the Safeguarding of Endangered 
Languages”. 

Read more: 
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/endangered-languages/dynamic-content-single-vi
ew-meeting/news/expert_meeting_on_safeguarding_endangered_languages/ 

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Documentation 
The final outcome of the UNESCO simulation that will be conducted in South Indian Model United 
Nations Conference 2018 will be a draft resolution. The delegates can download and go through 
the draft resolution adopted by UNESCO: 
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002481/248139e.pdf 

Voting Procedure 
After the Chairman has announced the beginning of voting, no one shall interrupt the voting 
except on a point of order in connection with the actual conduct of the voting. 

Decisions of UNESCO shall be taken by a simple majority of the Members present and voting, 
except where otherwise specified in these rules. For the purposes of determining the majority, 
only Members casting an affirmative or negative vote shall be counted as ‘present and voting’; 
Members who abstain from voting shall be considered as not voting. 

In the following cases a two-thirds majority of the Members present and voting is required: 

● reconsideration of proposals 
● consultation by correspondence 
● amendment of Rules of Procedure 
● suspension of Rules of Procedure 
● establishment, before each session of the General Conference, of the list of States not 
members of UNESCO which are to be invited to send observers to the session. 

Preventive measures by UNESCO 

UNESCO acts on many fronts to safeguard endangered languages and prevent their 
disappearance: 

● In education, UNESCO supports policies promoting multilingualism and especially mother 

tongue literacy; it supports the language component of indigenous education and raises 
awareness of the importance of language preservation in education. 
● In culture, UNESCO collects data on endangered and indigenous languages, develops 
standardized tools and methodologies, and builds capacities of governments and civil 
society (academic institutions and speaker communities). 

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● In communication and information, UNESCO supports the use of local languages in the 
media and promotes multilingualism in cyberspace. 
● In science, UNESCO assists programmes to strengthen the role of local languages in the 
transmission of local and indigenous knowledge. 

Yet there have instances of languages being extinction despite these measures. It is impossible 
to estimate the total number of languages that have disappeared over human history. Linguists 
have calculated the numbers of extinct languages for certain regions, such as, for instance, 
Europe and Asia Minor (75 languages) or the United States (115 languages lost in the last five 
centuries, of some 280 spoken at the time of Columbus). Some examples of recently extinct 
languages are: 

● Akkala Sami (Russian Federation) - the last speaker died in 2003 

● Aasax (Tanzania) – 1976 
● Ubyk (Turkey) – 1992, with the death of Tevfik Esenc 
● Eyak (United States, Alaska) – 2008, with the death of Marie Smith Jones 

The consequences of extinction of a language 

Sociolinguistics and anthropological linguists are only now beginning to understand the effects of 
language loss or shift on communities. The process is complicated, for although it always 
involves pressure of some kind, the loss itself may be involuntary or voluntary. In either case, it is 
frequently seen as a loss of social identity or as a symbol of defeat by a colonial power—if not by 
those abandoning the language, then often by the next generation. 

Moreover, the loss is not only a matter of perceived identity. Much of the cultural, spiritual, and 
intellectual life of a people is experienced through language. This ranges from prayers, myths, 
ceremonies, poetry, oratory, and technical vocabulary, to everyday greetings, leave-takings, 
conversational styles, humor, ways of speaking to children, and unique terms for habits, behavior, 
and emotions. When a language is lost, all this must be refashioned in the new language—with 
different word categories, sounds, and grammatical structures—if it is to be kept at all. Linguists' 
work in communities when language shift is occurring shows that for the most part such 
refashioning, even when social identity is maintained, involves abrupt loss of tradition. More 
often, the cultural forms of the colonial power take over, transmitted often by television. 

Some say that language loss is an inevitable consequence of progress and promotes 
understanding among groups. But this goal can be met by the learning of second and third 
languages, not by the loss of first languages. As anthropological linguists have shown in a variety 
of cases, language loss is far more directly a consequence of intolerance for diversity, particularly 
when practiced by the powerful against the weak. 

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Effects on communities 

As communities lose their language they often also lose parts of their cultural traditions which are 
tied to that language, such as songs, myths, and poetry that are not easily transferred to another 
language. This may, in turn, affect their sense of identity, producing a weakened social cohesion 
as their values and traditions are replaced with new ones. This is sometimes characterized as 
anomie. Losing a language may also have political consequences as some countries confer 
different political statuses or privileges on minority ethnic groups, often defining ethnicity in terms 
of language. That means that communities that lose their language may also lose political 
legitimacy as a community with special collective rights. 

Effects on languages 

During language loss — sometimes referred to as obsolescence in the linguistic literature — the 
language that is being lost generally undergoes changes as speakers make their language more 
similar to the language that they are shifting to. For example, gradually losing grammatical or 
phonological complexities that are not found in the dominant language. 

Effects on the environment 

As Nancy Rivenburgh wrote for the International Association of Conference Interpreters, what’s 
happening with today’s language loss is actually quite different from anything that happened 
before. Languages in the past disappeared and were born anew, she writes, but “they did so in a 
state of what linguists call ‘linguistic equilibrium.’ In the last 500 years, however, the equilibrium 
that characterized much of human history is now gone. And the world’s dominant languages—or 
what is often called ‘metropolitan’ languages—are all now rapidly expanding at the expense of 
‘peripheral’ indigenous languages. Those peripheral languages are not being replaced.” 

That means that out of the around 7000 languages that most reputable sources estimate are 
spoken globally, only the top 100 are widely spoken. And it isn’t just our understanding of the 
human mind that’s impaired, she writes. In many places, indigenous languages and their 
speakers are rich sources of information about the world around them and the plants and animals 
in the area where they live. In a time of mass extinction, that knowledge is especially precious. 

“Medical science loses potential cures,” she writes. “Resource planners and national 
governments lose accumulated wisdom regarding the management of marine and land resources 
in fragile ecosystems.” 

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Certain solutions implemented to prevent the extinction of 

language 
Digitalization 

According to Howard Jones of MIT, in the present world where almost everything is controlled by 
digital sectors, ancient languages must not be limited only to textbooks and paintings, but 
brought back into life via digital form, using endangered language as a platform in social media to 
creating blogs on these languages for its survival and promotion. 

Art 

According to Tim Brookes, one who does not understand the languages carves into maple 
planks, but his art (​endangeredalphabets.com​) helped the indigenous children of the Chittagong 
Hill Tracks in Bangladesh learn to read and write in their native language. Brookes, who carves 
words, phrases, and poems in various alphabets to raise awareness of endangered languages, 
worked with a Marma educator and other artists to create the first school books in the indigenous 
tongues of Bangladesh. 

Popular characters 

Thanks to Navajo Nation Museum director Manuelito Wheeler, members of the Navajo tribe can 
now hear "May the force be with you" in their native tongue. In an effort to preserve the 
endangered Navajo language, which has gone from 178,000 to 169,000 speakers since 2003, a 
team of five translators worked with Lucasfilm to dub Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, making 
it the first-ever film in the Navajo language. It premiered at the Navajo Nation Fair in Window 
Rock, Arizona, on July 3, 2013. 

Modern Technology 

A panel of linguists, digital-etching experts, and artists are the creators of the Rosetta Disk, a 
three-inch nickel disk etched with 13,000 microscopic pages in 1,500 different languages. 
They've taken an intentionally analog approach to preserving endangered languages; the 
waterproof disk can withstand high temperatures and is resistant to electromagnetic radiation. 
You also don't need a computer to read it, though you do need a microscope.   

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References 
http://www.un.org/en/events/iyl/multilingualism.shtml 

http://linguistics.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.001.0001/acrefore-978019
9384655-e-21 

http://lingsib.iea.ras.ru/en/articles/smeets.shtml 

https://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/endangered-languages 

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/da59/e585831ac210d7fe2bfb4d77082ba6720c4b.pdf 

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/note/join/2013/495851/IPOL-CULT_NT(2013)495
851_EN.pdf 

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