U.N. Independent Expert on minority issues Rita Izsák has warned that half of the world's estimated 6,000 plus languages are likely to die out by the end of the century, and urged world governments to take significant and urgent efforts to protect both minority communities and their language heritage.
"Some groups are vulnerable to factors beyond their control, such as policies of assimilation that promote dominant national or official languages, the impact of conflict, or forced displacement from their traditional lands," Izsák said while presenting her latest report to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Wednesday. "Some countries have aggressively promoted a single national language as a means of reinforcing sovereignty, national unity and territorial integrity," she noted.
The human rights expert noted that minority language rights and language use have frequently been a source of tensions, both between and within States. "Proponents of linguistic rights have sometimes been associated with secessionist movements or have been seen as a threat to the integrity or unity of a State," she said.
In her view, protection of linguistic minority rights is a human rights obligation and an essential component of good governance, efforts to prevent tensions and conflict, and the construction of equal and politically and socially stable societies.
"It can be argued that today globalization, the growth of the Internet and web-based information is having a direct and detrimental impact on minority languages and linguistic diversity, as global communications and marketplaces require global understanding."
Izsak also presented her findings following her visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina at the end of September 2012, as well as the recommendations of the fifth session of Forum on Minority Issues that she is responsible for guiding in the conduct of her mandate.
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