The statement said: "We celebrate all languages, cultures and nations and vow to protect cultural and linguistic diversity. With the consciousness of a democratic nation embedded in the democratic Autonomous Administration system, every component of the society has taken its place under the roof of this administration. In Northern and Eastern Syria, we organize ourselves on the idea and philosophy of a democratic nation that include all nations, religions, and components and protect culture, language and geography.”

The statement continued: “One of the main and important tasks of this administration is to revive the mother language that our mothers have preserved until today with poems, stories, folklore and in daily life, a mother language prohibited in education by state systems. Mothers play a very important role in protecting the Kurdish language. With the Rojava revolution, the participation of many women in the field of education contributed greatly to this.”

Background

International Mother Language Day recognizes that languages and multilingualism can advance inclusion, and the Sustainable Development Goals’ focus on leaving no one behind. UNESCO believes education, based on the first language or mother tongue, must begin from the early years as early childhood care and education is the foundation of learning.

Every two weeks a language disappears taking with it an entire cultural and intellectual heritage. At least 43% of the estimated 6000 languages spoken in the world are endangered. Only a few hundred languages have genuinely been given a place in education systems and the public domain, and less than a hundred are used in the digital world.

International Mother Language Day was proclaimed by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in November 1999. The UN General Assembly welcomed the proclamation of the day in its resolution of 2002.