PEN Celebrates the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples

Chiapas

August 9 – Today is the United Nations’ International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. This day was chosen to commemorate the first meeting of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations, held in Geneva in 1982. 

UNESCO has designated 2019 as the International Year of Indigenous Languages in order to raise awareness about the urgent need to revitalise and conserve indigenous tongues around the world. Indigenous languages are recognised by the United Nations as a crucial tool for the safeguarding of human rights, the consolidation of peace and the reconciliation of population groups. The celebration in 2019 will contribute to the promotion and protection of indigenous languages and to the significant improvement of the lives of those who speak them.

This year, the main theme of the PEN International’s Translation and Linguistic Rights Committee (TLRC) conference was “Writing the Future in Indigenous Languages.” This meeting took place in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, from May 2 to 4. More than 50 journalists, writers, intellectuals and activists from all around the world participated in different activities related to global linguistic rights and languages. During these days, the PEN Centres established the “San Cristóbal de las Casas Declaration on Indigenous Literatures”, an essential document to continue the fight for the defence of indigenous literatures.

Jennifer Clement, president of PEN International, declared: “Following our Charter, we have affirmed for a century, that literature knows no frontiers and must remain common currency among people”. Carles Torner, Executive Director of PEN International, admitted to having felt particularly moved by “the strong presence of the PEN in indigenous literature”.

PEN's previous work on indigenous languages includes adopting a Resolution on the Silencing of Indigenous Voices in Australia, which was adopted in the 84th Congress in Pune, India. This resolution aims to empower and protect the rights of the indigenous communities around the continent.

This autumn, the Philippine PEN will host another important event related to the protection of indigenous languages. This is the upcoming PEN International Congress, taking place in Manila from September 30 to October 4. As 2019 is the International Year of Indigenous Languages, the theme of the 85th PEN International Congress will be “Speaking in Tongues: Literary Freedom and Indigenous Languages”, in order to promote cultural development and to guarantee the freedom of expression of the most vulnerable population groups.

PEN continues to campaign for Ilham Tohti, a Uyghur professor who founded the website “Uighurbiz.net” in 2006 to promote conciliation between Uyghurs and Han Chinese, but was arrested on January 15, 2014. Despite the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention finding his detention to be arbitrary in March 2014, Tohti was sentenced to life in prison in September of that year on charges of “separatism” after just a two-day trial.

In 2017, PEN International launched Culture's Oxygen, a new report which examines the condition for minority language creative writing industries in Kenya, Haiti, Serbia and Nigeria.

Marta Eireos Currás works as a Community Manager for United Nations Spain and as a Communications Intern at PEN International. She holds a degree in Journalism and Mass Media from the University of Santiago de Compostela and is currently pursuing a Masters degree in International Journalism and International Relations in Barcelona.