The following list is only a sample of some of the resources that we have started to collect for continued learning. We recognize that there are many more useful guides, manuals, tutorials, and other resources useful for new language digital activists. If you have a suggestion for a resource we should know about, please share it here.
GUIDES AND TOOLKITS
- Indigenous Languages and Knowledge on Wikimedia Projects Toolbox Wikimedia, (English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Russian, Chinese, and Others), 2020
- Indigenous Languages: Zero to Digital. A guide to bring your language online Translation Commons, 2019
- Indigitization: Tools for Digitizing and Sustaining Indigenous Knowledge First Nations of BC, University of British Columbia, University of Northern British Columbia, 2020
- The Language Sustainability Toolkit, Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, Wikitongues, 2020
- Openspeaks Multimedia Toolkit The O [Openness] Foundation, India, 2019
- The ‘Digital Language Survival Toolkit‘ (English, Spanish, Basque, French, Breton, Finnish, Karelian, Italian), 2018
- Guía de revitalización lingüística: para una gestión formada e informada LinguaPax, Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca, 2020
- Check Before You Tech, First Peoples’ Cultural Council, 2020.
DECLARATIONS
- European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
- African Union's Cultural Charter for Africa (1976 [1990]), Articles 17 and 18 calls for development and teaching of African languages.
- African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, African Union (1982 [1986])
- Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, UNESCO, 2003
- Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, UNESCO, 2005
CHARTERS, ARTICLES, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
- Article 13 – Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (United Nations)
Indigenous peoples have the right to revitalize, use, develop and transmit to future generations their histories, languages, oral traditions, philosophies, writing systems and literatures, and to designate and retain their own names for communities, places and persons.
- Los Pinos Declaration [Chapoltepek] – Making a Decade of Action for Indigenous Languages (Español, English, Français)
- Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, A/HRC/17/27, paragraph 87 United Nations, 2016
Where the infrastructure for Internet access is present, the Special Rapporteur encourages States to support initiatives to ensure that online information can be accessed in a meaningful way by all sectors of the population, including persons with disabilities and persons belonging to linguistic minorities.
- Standards for a Free, Open and Inclusive Internet, Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, 2017 (paragraph 48), 2017
The Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression has emphasized that “In order for Internet access to constitute an authentic instrument to increase informational pluralism and cultural diversity, it is necessary to guarantee the participation of linguistic minorities, as well as the availability of local content on the Internet. As the Inter-American Court has indicated, the right to freedom of expression necessarily includes the right of individuals to use the language of their choosing to express themselves.” States should take measures designed to reduce linguistic obstacles in order to make literacy viable and ensure access for all people under equal conditions. They should also “promote original local and indigenous content on the Internet.
- El multilinguismo en ciberespacio, lenguas indígenas para el empoderamiento, UNESCO, 2015 “6.2.1 Elaboración de contenidos y sistemas multilingües.”
- Local and indigenous content in the digital space: Protection, preservation and sustainability of creative work and traditional knowledge, Internet Governance Forum, 2018
- Inclusion – Democratic Principles for an Open Internet (Internet Rights and Principles Dynamic Coalition of the UN-IGF)
Cultural and linguistic diversity on the internet must be promoted, and technical and policy innovation should be encouraged to facilitate plurality of expression
