“Mother tongues are the reflection of cultural diversity and the diehard expression of human creativity, like a tapestry representing the wealth of humanity’s heritage”. It is in these terms that Enamul Kabir, Bangladesh’s Permanent Delegate to UNESCO, reminded us of the importance of languages during the 10th International Mother Language Day on February 20, 2009 in Paris.

Professor Yaï, President of the Executive Board of UNESCO and Koïchiro Maatsura, its General Director, inaugurated the 2009 edition of this day, marking the culmination of the International Year of Languages. A year ago, the Untied Nations decided to place 2008 under the general slogan “Languages matter”. The year long celebration bore witness to the creation of over 200 initiatives in favor of languages.

Amongst these programs is the Fondation Chirac’s “Sorosoro, so that the languages of the world may prosper!” that UNESCO has saluted as an exemplary initiative due to its concrete actions. Rozenn Milin, the program’s director for the Fondation, came to explain its objectives. It aims to “accompany and round out the wonderful work undertaken by researchers and academics” with the implementation of a Digital Encyclopedia of Languages. This linguistic wealth will be diffused thanks to an Internet site whose launch is planned for June 2, 2009. “There is no peace without development and no development without culture,” Rozenn Milin insisted. This is why the Fondation Chirac has placed the safeguard of languages at the heart of its project for peace.

UNESCO also lauded another initiative, the Maaya Network, a platform uniting various actors in linguistic domains from across the world. The network aims at bringing together forces to better promote and support linguistic diversity as a vector for peace and development.

“Languages and Peace are inseparable”, this was the conclusion of the morning’s talks, a conclusion delivered in the form of a saying by the President of the African Academy of Languages and President of the Maaya Network, Adama Samassekou, “Linguistic diversity is to human society what biodiversity is to the planet, its life breath.”