18 April 2008. Kyiv, Ukraine – The UN general Assembly proclaimed 2008 the International Year of Languages to promote multilingualism and unity in diversity. In Ukraine, the languages festival “Ecology of Communications” is organized throughout the country on 11-20 April 2008.
Initiated by the organizational committee of Karavan “INTERCULTURE”, the Festival was conducted in several cities of Ukraine: Hadyach, Komsomols’k, Lutsk, Lviv, Kharkiv, Cherkassy and Poltava.
Today the Festival has been launched in Kyiv at the Dragomanov National Pedagogical University with participation of the representatives of UN Department of Public Information in Ukraine and UNESCO schools association, diplomats from Poland, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Spain, Ghana and other countries, as well as students and teachers, scientists and professors of linguistics, ethnographers, historians, and media.
The participants of the festival representing different nations and ethnicities intorudced their language to the audience and made short performances promoting their culture and traditions.
On 16 May 2007, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2008 to be the International Year of Languages. As language issues are central to UNESCO’s mandate in education, science, social and human sciences, culture, and communication and information, the Organization has been named the lead agency for this event.
To celebrate the International Year of Languages, the United Nations invites governments, international organizations, civil society organizations, educational institutions, professional associations and all other stakeholders to increase their own activities to promote and protect all languages, particularly endangered languages, in all individual and collective contexts.
To learn more about this year observances worldwide, please visit the web-site - 2008 International Year of Languages.
18.04.08
