[MLE] New report: State of worlds minorities 2009

Dear MLE friends,
Lobbying on international level takes a lot of effort and time. It is good to note that in the recently released 'State of the World's Minorities 2009' MLE is getting prominent attention. The report is prepared by the Minority Rights Group International (MRG) in collaboration with UNICEF. The report has an entire chapter on MLE (attached). Some more details (From Helen Pinnock of Save The Children UK) are below.
·       Links to the report: http://www.minorityrights.org/7948/state-of-the-worlds-minorities/state-of-the-worlds-minorities-and-indigenous-peoples-2009.html#links_and_downloads (For full report, click on “Full text” on the right hand column under “downloads”.
·       A press release focusing on Language: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47693
·       Article: Indigenous Languages: A View from UNICEF : http://www.minorityrights.org/download.php?id=664
Regards,
Karsten

Karsten van Riezen
Education Consultant, SIL Int.
SIL, South Asia Group.

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----- Original Message -----
From: Helen Pinnock
To
Cc:
Sent: Monday, July 27, 2009 10:25 PM
Subject: New report: State of worlds minorities 2009

Dear all,

Please find attached a link to the new 'State of the World's Minorities 2009' report from Minority Rights Group (many thanks to Liz for circulating it.) Choose 'download: full text' on the right hand menu on the web page.

The report is a great source of information and arguments around minority children's situation and rights, with strong calls for better practice in education. It doesn't always make the strongest possible use of references/supporting information, but it's still a very useful and compelling document, particularly to help people get to grips with minority education issues.

Quite a lot of the chapter on multilingual education appears to reflect inputs that I provided to the draft version. An earlier section, provided by the UN Special Representative on Minorities, Gay McDougall, indicate that the lobbying we did at the UN Minority Forum has succeeded - mother tongue based multilingual education is now a much stronger part of what Ms McDougall is calling for. And Mathura, our partners in Bangladesh, is quoted several times throughout - congratulations Mathura for making such an impression! Pam Mackenzie's presentation at the Forum has also clearly influenced this section a great deal.

Some examples of sections which indicate our influence :

'Mother tongue education and multilingual education programmes were presented to the UN Forum that seek to enable children to learn and operate
successfully in their mother tongue as well as national languages. Such programmes, in conjunction with culturally inclusive curricula, seek to provide learners with the opportunity to contribute to and benefit from national society without forcing them to sacrifice their linguistic and cultural heritage.'

'At the UN Forum on Minority Issues (UN Forum), held for the first time in December 2008, speaker after speaker gave evidence about educational
discrimination and exclusion in their country. ...  One of the recommendations in response is that 'attention is paid to instruction in the home language and teachers are competent to do so';

'After significant civil society lobbying at the International Bureau of Education international conference in 2008, the world’s education ministers
recommended that states should: ‘view linguistic and cultural diversity in the classroom as a valuable resource and promote the use of the mother tongue
in the early years of instruction’.

Please share the report with your contacts as appropriate.

With best wishes,

Helen