Celebration of the International Mother Language Day

Programme
Thursday 21 February 2002 at 4 p.m., Room XI
UNESCO Headquarters, Paris

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Opening

Message from the Director-General on the occasion of the International Mother Language Day (21 February 2002 )

Message from H.E. Mrs Vigdis Finnbogadóttir, Former President of the Republic of Iceland, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Languages

M. Mounir Bouchenaki, Assistant Directeur-General for Culture

M.John Daniel, Assistant Director-General for Education (represented by Mr Seddoh, DIR/ED/HED)

H.E. Mr Jahangir Saadat, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Bangladesh in France, Permanent Delegate of Bangladesh to UNESCO

H.E. Mr Olabiyi Babalola Joseph Yai, Ambassador Permanent Delegate of Benin to UNESCO

Mr Jean d’Ormesson, French Academy

Mrs (Dr) Mireia Montané, President of the Languages Commission, Director of the Education Programme - Barcelona Forum 2004, Spain

Mr Claude Hagège, Chair of Linguistic Theory Collège de France, France

Mrs (Dr) Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Vice-President of Terralingua, Denmark

Presentation of the second edition of " An Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing ", published by UNESCO in September 2001, in homage to the memory of the late Professor Stephen Wurm, editor-in-chief of the Atlas and world-known linguist

H.E. Mr Matthew Peek, Minister Permanent Delegate of Australia to UNESCO

Mr Jean Perrot, Member of the Executive Board, Permanent International Committee of Linguists (CIPL), Inter-universitary Centre of Hungarian Studies, New Sorbonne University – Paris III, France

Mr Rieks Smeets, Secretary General Netherlands National Commission for UNESCO, The Netherlands

Prof. Matthias Brenzinger, Institut für Arfikanistik, Universität zu Köln Germany

Cultural programme

Closing