Kathmandu, December 17. The high-level United Nations general assembly on Friday launched a 10-year plan “International Decade of Indigenous Languages 2022- 2032” to preserve the languages of indigenous people from all over the world. 

Over 4,000 of the world’s 6,700 or so languages are spoken by indigenous people, according to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Conservative projections indicate that more than half of all languages will disappear by the end of this century.

President of the UN General Assembly Csaba Korosi urged countries to collaborate with indigenous populations to protect their rights, including access to education and resources in their original languages, and to make sure they are not exploited.

‘Indigenous peoples are guardians to almost 80 percent of the world’s remaining biodiversity. With each indigenous language that goes extinct, so too goes the thought: the culture, tradition, and knowledge it bears. if we are to successfully protect nature, we must listen to indigenous peoples, and we must do so in their own language,’ Korosi noted.

‘One indigenous language dies every two weeks, this should ring our alarms,” Korosi urged governments to adopt the 10-year plan, which is focused on strengthening, recognition, documentation, and revitalization.