European Language Equality Network

Renewing the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights for the 21st Century 🌍🗣️

A new international process has been launched to update the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights (Barcelona, 1996), adapting it to today’s social, technological, and political challenges. ✊

Led by PEN Catala and CIEMEN, and supported by the ELEN network, the process will run until 2028, aiming to present an updated Declaration to UN human rights bodies. 🌐

The update responds to key challenges such as digitalization, artificial intelligence, migration, conflicts, and language decline, with a focus on protecting linguistic rights in digital environments and education. 💻⚖️

Plataforma per la Llengua CIEMEN PEN Català Euskalgintzaren Kontseilua A Mesa pola Normalización Lingüística Òmnium Cultural Hizkuntz Eskubideen Behatokia Acció Cultural del País Valencià Obra Cultural Balear Lingua Pax

#LinguisticRights #LanguageRights #HumanRights #CulturalDiversity #DigitalRights

"The situation for minoritized language speakers in Greece remains one of the worst in Europe. The deliberate, state-backed, discrimination against speakers of these languages is all-encompassing in its totality with regular reports received from ELEN member organisations in Greece on how the Greek state continues to marginalize and undermine minoritized languages - most of which are described by UNESCO as endangered – along with numerous examples of hate-speech against minoritised language speakers." ELEN report to United Nations UPR on Greece, April 2026.

UN Human Rights - Europe European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights UN Human Rights Council Anti-discrimination and Inclusion at the Council of Europe Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Eurolang ABTTF - Avrupa Batı Trakya Türk Federasyonu Sotiris Bletsas