The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action was adopted unanimously
at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women (4-15 September
1995) held in Beijing, China. by representatives from 189 countries. While
the Declaration does not directly address language rights, the Platform
for Action, in identifying the "critical areas of concern" that
represent the main obstacles to the advancement of women, includes numerous
proposals to promote language rights for women. The most relevant recommendations
for action in this area appear below.
80. By Governments:
(a) Advance the goal of equal access to education by taking measures
to eliminate discrimination in education at all levels on the basis
of gender, race, language, religion, national origin, age or disability,
or any other form of discrimination and, as appropriate, consider establishing
procedures to address grievances;
125. By Governments, including local governments, and community organizations,
non-governmental organizations, educational institutions, the public
and private sectors, particularly enterprises, and the mass media, as
appropriate:
(b) Establish linguistically and culturally accessible services for
migrant women and girls, including women migrant workers, who are victims
of gender-based violence;
147. By Governments, intergovernmental and non- governmental organizations
and other institutions involved in providing protection, assistance
and training to refugee women, other displaced women in need of international
protection and internally displaced women, including the Office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Food Programme,
as appropriate:
(g) Facilitate the availability of educational material in the appropriate
language - in emergency situations also - in order to minimize disruption
of schooling among refugee and displaced children;
(l) Provide, as appropriate, women who have been determined refugees
with access to vocational/professional training programmes, including
language training, small-scale enterprise development training and planning
and counselling on all forms of violence
against women, which should include rehabilitation programmes for victims
of torture and trauma; Governments and other donors should contribute
adequately to assistance programmes for refugee women, other displaced
women in need of international protection and internally displaced women,
particularly taking into account the effects on the host countries of
the increasing requirements of large refugee populations and the need
to widen the donor base and to achieve greater burden-sharing;
(p) Facilitate the productive employment of documented migrant women
(including women who have been determined refugees according to the
1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees) through greater
recognition of foreign education and credentials and by adopting an
integrated approach to labour market training that incorporates language
training.
233. By Governments and non-governmental organizations, the United
Nations and other international organizations, as appropriate:
(a) Translate, whenever possible, into local and indigenous languages
and into alternative formats appropriate for persons with disabilities
and persons at lower levels of literacy, publicize and disseminate laws
and information relating to the equal status and human rights of all
women, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the International Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination 33 , the Convention
on the Rights of the Child, the Convention against Torture and Other
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Declaration
on the Right to Development 34 and the Declaration on the Elimination
of Violence against Women, as well as the outcomes of relevant United
Nations conferences and summits and national reports to the Committee
on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women;
(g) Promote education on the human and legal rights of women in school
curricula at all levels of education and undertake public campaigns,
including in the most widely used languages of the country, on the equality
of women and men in public and private life, including their rights
within the family and relevant human rights instruments under national
and international law;
242. By non-governmental organizations and media professional associations:
(d) Encourage the media industry and education and media training institutions
to develop, in appropriate languages, traditional, indigenous and other
ethnic group forms of media, such as story-telling, drama, poetry and
song reflecting their cultures, and utilize these forms of communication
to disseminate information on development and social issues.
