Topic: 2024-Indigenous Languages
Country: Colombia
Delegate Name: Cameron Balis
Colombia has over 70 known languages that derive from 10 separate groups. As a nation that has many different languages, we hold them to a high value that we want to protect due to their cultural and historical significance. Around the world, Indigenous languages are disappearing at an alarming rate, by 2100 more than half the world’s languages will be lost to time according to the Library of Congress. In South America, this is very important due to the cultural borders that are broken between countries and wanting to reunify them.
Many languages make up Colombia as a whole even inside of our government that are implemented in legislation. The preservation of these languages can teach not only our children but also other countries about Colombia’s own culture and history. What can be done to preserve these many languages? bringing more attention to each culture that utilizes these languages, such as setting up different days of the year for each language to celebrate them and have them taught around Colombia. Colombia has already implemented a policy to recognize different languages inside of the Constitution giving indigenous languages certified recognition in government. Colombia has also implemented law 1381 which regulates the promotion, protection, use, and preservation of local indigenous languages along with ethnic groups.
Colombia proposes the creation of an organization in the UN set up by a coalition of countries to help preserve cultural languages and texts. A directive of this organization can be the complete preservation of indigenous cities, towns, and people.
Saving all of these monumental ideals are highly important to Colombia but help is needed. Colombia currently does not have the funds so including other countries in this idea is very high on our agenda. The overall importance of Indigenous languages to Colombia is empowering and the future ruin of them is concerning. We implore all countries far and wide to help in our plan to solve this problem. We hope to see the UN more aggressively fund education and preservation in policies or organizations. Moving forward in the preservation of indigenous languages is exciting, Colombia is looking forward to working with the United Nations to continue this path to preservation.
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