Indigenous languages in Latin America and the Caribbean gain momentum with public policies and regional agreements

The launch of new national programs and regional agreements strengthens the defense of Indigenous languages. Community participation and international cooperation play a central role.

UNESCO highlights regional initiatives such as Honduras’s National Action Plan and the Central American Languages Plan, along with other regional initiatives that promote coordination and the defense of these languages.

The UN Organization cites these initiatives as key mechanisms for turning the United Nations’ goals for the Decade into concrete actions that enable countries to identify priorities and promote national strategies aligned with the Global Action Plan of the Decade (2022–2032).

UNESCO notes that a growing number of countries have already developed and launched their own national plans. They include Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela, which in turn reflects a sustained regional commitment to the goals of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022–2032).

On February 21, the Central American Languages Plan was launched with the aim of coordinating joint action among the Indigenous peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean and educational and cultural institutions, together with UNESCO.

For its part, the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) also held an online event focused on language policies and linguistic rights in the Amazon region, in order to strengthen regional cooperation and consolidate shared priorities together with Caribbean organizations. 

Indigenous languages in Latin America and the Caribbean are part of a diverse cultural heritage that spans hundreds of peoples in the region. “Indigenous languages are an irreplaceable heritage for humanity,” UNESCO warns, in a context where more than 420 languages are still spoken, although many of them are at risk of disappearing.

In this scenario, linguistic preservation is linked not only to cultural diversity but also to the transmission of knowledge, identities and forms of social organization. Within this framework, the UN proclaimed 2022–2032 the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, with the aim of raising global awareness of the urgent need to preserve, revitalize and promote Indigenous languages around the world.

A key concern for UNESCO

“Many Indigenous languages are disappearing at an accelerated rate,” UNESCO warned, pointing to the urgency of preservation policies.

Along these lines, the United Nations declared 2019 the Year of Indigenous Languages to raise awareness of the need to preserve the more than 6,000 Indigenous languages spoken around the world. The initiative sought to draw attention to the fact that thousands of languages are at risk of disappearing, in many cases because of a lack of transmission between generations.

UNESCO, together with Caribbean institutions, carried out a campaign in airports to raise awareness among the hundreds of thousands of passengers who pass through these spaces about the critical risks facing Indigenous languages and their value as vehicles of culture, knowledge systems and ways of life.

In addition, these campaigns place Indigenous peoples themselves at the center, who affirm “nothing for us without us,” embodying the principles of self-determination, participation and leadership. It also promotes “the right to develop, revitalize and transmit to future generations the languages that reflect the ideas and values of Indigenous peoples, as well as their knowledge systems and cultures,” in the UN’s words.

Organizations that promote public policies and the defense of Indigenous languages maintain that it is necessary to guarantee a results-based management framework that incorporates a human rights perspective and a related legal framework encompassing cultural sensitivity, social and intercultural dialogue, gender equality and the inclusion of persons with disabilities, and that uses a paradigm that fosters capacity-building and environmental sustainability.

In addition to the regional plans, the UN promoted the Global Action Plan, which sets out the human rights principles (equality, inclusion, participation, solidarity and non-discrimination) to be applied by all parties involved in the International Decade. The International Decade spans a ten-year period that offers numerous opportunities to improve international cooperation, build partnerships and dialogue, and strategically accommodate different points of view and opinions, as well as the participation of various stakeholders.

In this scenario, the challenge is to sustain these initiatives over time and ensure that policies translate into concrete results for the communities that keep these languages alive.

Guillermo Whpei

President of Fundación para la Democracia