UN celebrates 25 Years of the International Mother Language Day

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United Nations – On February 21, 2025, the United Nations and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) celebrated the 25^th anniversary of the International Mother Language Day. For 25 years, countries across the globe have been celebrating the day to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.

The day was celebrated widely in India in different states with various events and activities, and exchanging greeting messages for the day on social media.

This year, a global celebration was held in Addis Ababa on the eve of February 21, 2025 attended by international officials, diplomats, scholars and culture representatives. The celebration was co-organized by UNESCO, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the Embassy of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, the Organization Internationale de la Francophone (OIF), the League of Arab States (LAS) and many international diplomatic missions.

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“Mother-tongue teaching can be used as a tool for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals through inclusion,” said the Chief of Staff at the Office of the Executive Secretary of United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in his opening remarks.

Emphasizing multilingualism as a crucial factor in the development of personal, social and cultural identity, he called on the gathering to work towards building a multidimensional and multilingual world ‘where mutual understanding, acceptance of others, tolerance, and peace are emphasized and brought to the fore’.

Pointing out the importance of the 25^th anniversary of the day, Dr. Salifou Abdoulaye addressed the gathering on behalf of Dr. Rita Bissoonauth, Director of UNESCO Liason Office. Speaking about the emerging AI technologies, Abdoulaye said that “technology can never replace the richness of human languages’. Instead, technology relies on human expression, culture and identity to enhance multilingualism, he said.

Stressing the need to safeguard languages, Abdoulaye said, “As we celebrate this milestone, let us remember when a language disappears, a way of seeing the world fades with it.” It is only through multilingualism that we can safeguard our languages, our stories and our shared humanity, he said.

Poetry recitation in French, Amharic, Russian, Armenian and Persian were part of the celebration. Representatives from the embassies of Iran, Armenia, Bangladesh, China, the United States and the United Kingdom also spoke at the event, emphasizing the importance of preserving endangered languages in the interest of global unity.

UNESCO chooses a theme for each International Mother Language Day to underscore the importance of multilingualism, and organizes related events at its Paris headquarters. Reflecting this, the themes have been in 2023 ‘Multilingual education: A necessity to transform education’ and in 2024  ‘Multilingual education – a pillar of learning and intergenerational learning’. This year, the annual theme is ‘Sliver Jubilee Celebration of International Mother Language Day’.

Under Secretary General Antonio Guterres, multilingualism has become the core principle of the UN’s mission, with non-discrimination on the basis of language established in its Charter. The UN is one of the world’s largest employers of other language translators and professionals including diplomats from its 193 member states whose effectiveness is strengthened in their ability to speak more than one languages.

Taking this further, the UN Information Centers around the world offer mother language access to students, journalists and peacekeeping workers to connect to people across borders, communities and generations.

The day was first proposed by Bangladesh and adopted by UNESCO in 1999. In 2000, the UN held the inaugural celebration of the day. It was later adopted by the UN General Assembly in resolution 56/262  in 2002. In 2007, another General Assembly resolution, 61/266 made the Mother Language Day part of the UN’s initiative to promote the preservation and protection of all languages used by people of the world, following which, the year 2008 was established as the International Year of the Languages.

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