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Séminaire interaméricain sur la gestion des langues

Inter-American Languages Management Seminar program

Seminario Interamericano sobre la Gestión de las Lenguas

Seminário Interamericano sobre a Gestão das Línguas

Québec, 28 au 30 août 2002

résolutions - Resoluciones - Resoluções - Resolutions

Whereas one of the wealths of the Americas is the diversity of their linguistic heritage;

Whereas the States of the Americas have initiated negotiations aimed at creating a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA);

Whereas the process of integrating the Americas must respect the linguistic and cultural diversity of their populations;

Considering the declaration regarding cultural diversity (chapter 17), adopted during the Quebec Summit in April 2001, recognizing the importance of the linguistic and cultural diversity of the Americas to promote greater acceptance, understanding, appreciation and respect among the peoples of the region”;

Mindful of the crucial role that civil society organizations (NGOs and others) have played and continue to play in developing and promoting the cultural and linguistic diversity of the Americas and the importance of their support to the efforts of States and governments in this endeavour;

Considering the declaration of Cartagena de Indias, adopted on July 13, 2002, during the first Inter-American meeting of Culture ministers and senior officials, which stressed the need to develop greater awareness and better understanding of the importance of cultural and linguistic diversity in the Americas through dialogue, studies, research, and through exchanges between countries, governments, regional and international organizations, the civil society and the private sector.

1^st Resolution

SETTING UP OF A MONITORING AND EXCHANGE STRUCTURE ON LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY

1.1 Participants at the Inter-American Languages Management Seminar agree to work together toward the development of the linguistic and cultural wealth of the Americas;

1.2 Participants at the Inter-American Languages Management Seminar agree to inform the States and governments concerned about the importance of:

a) contributing toward the respect and promotion of the linguistic diversity of the Americas;

b) recognizing the official nature of at least four languages (i.e., English, Spanish, French and Portuguese) at the inter-American supranational level;

c) fostering the consideration of linguistic and cultural issues in the context of continental integration;

d) promoting citizens’ development of their multilingual skills;

1.3 Participants at the Inter-American Languages Management Seminar invite the States and governments concerned to support the setting up of an inter-American forum on linguistic diversity at the Inter-American Commission on Culture created by the Action Plan adopted in Cartagena during the first inter-American meeting of culture ministers and senior officials in order to:

a. ensure strategic monitoring to disseminate knowledge and information about cases of successful languages management and development of multilingualism, especially within intergovernmental organizations, in the areas of trade, education, scientific research and culture;

b. exchange information about the evolution of linguistic policies within the Americas;

c. foster the respect of the official languages of the continent in trade transactions.

2^nd Resolution

Multilingualism in Inter-American organizations

2.1 Participants at the Inter-American Languages Management Seminar invite the relevant government authorities to ensure that inter-American organizations operate in at least four languages (English, Spanish, French and Portuguese) and make all official documents and general interest documents accessible to the public in these languages simultaneously;

2.2 Participants at the Inter-American Languages Management Seminar invite the relevant government authorities to:

a. foster research on linguistic diversity and language dynamics in the Americas, especially regarding analyzing problems and proposing solutions on respecting linguistic diversity and official multilingualism in inter-American institutions;

b. support the initiatives of the Social Development, Education and Culture Unit of the Organization of American States (OAS) and other organizations that are devoted to promoting, respecting and spreading the linguistic and cultural diversity of the continent;

c. promote the economic benefits of a multilingual approach in business and especially in culture, to the relevant authorities;

d. recognize the equity among the four languages and seek mechanisms that can help to ensure equal treatment of the official languages of supranational organizations.

3^rd Resolution

foreign language learning policies

3.1 Participants at the Inter-American Languages Management Seminar suggest to the relevant States and governments about the need to:

a. support and develop policies and programs geared at teaching two compulsory second or foreign languages in the school curriculum;

b. give priority in this light to the languages spoken on the continent in order to foster understanding among the citizens of the Americas;

c. create or reinforce advanced training programs for teachers of second or foreign languages.

3.2 Participants at the Inter-American Languages Management Seminar invite officials of educational and academic institutions as well as the relevant government authorities to:

a. support the development of exchanges of professors and students;

b. develop new educational technologies;

c. organize traditional or on-line forums for the exchange of knowledge;

d. encourage linguistic and educational research and the development of teaching aids in order to promote knowledge of the regional variations of languages.

4^th Resolution

Linguistic policies regarding creoles and native languages

4.1 Participants at the Inter-American Languages Management Seminar agree that the recognition, development and promotion of the use of Creoles and native languages is the responsibility of the States and governments concerned and remind them of the need to:

a. create the legal conditions that are necessary for Creoles and native languages to be recognized;

b. support research and develop programs geared at teaching and using Creoles and native languages;

c. institute policies aimed at improving the teaching of Creoles and native languages as well as education in these languages.

4.2 Participants at the Inter-American Languages Management Seminar invite the relevant inter-American organizations to support States and governments in their policies of promoting native languages and Creoles.

5^th Resolution

Standardization and cultural and linguistic diversity

5. Conscious of the implications of standardization to society, participants at the Inter-American Languages Management Seminar agree to inform the relevant government authorities and to spur them to act on the need for:

a. inter-American standardization organizations (COPANT^{^[1]}, SIM², IAAC³) to develop standards and certification processes, such as ISO, that are culturally and linguistically adaptable;

b. inter-American standardization organizations to create a structure to coordinate and monitor the implementation of the concept of cultural and linguistic adaptability and technical accounting (interoperability);

c. inter-American standardization organizations of the Americas as well as the relevant working groups of the FTAA to develop technical and terminological standards and other normative documents in at least four languages (English, Spanish, French and Portuguese).

d. support for the participation of all national normalization organizations in the international normalization process and to foster regional dialogue from the outset within the Americas.

e. inter-American organizations to equip themselves with terminological infrastructure that will be responsible for establishing multilingual terminology in areas that are useful and crucial for the integration process.

6^th Resolution

Affirmation of linguistic diversity and promotion of cultural diversity

6.1 Participants at the Inter-American Languages Management Seminar invite the States and governments of the Americas, as well as the authorities concerned not to make commitments during international trade negotiations that would limit their prerogatives in promoting cultural and linguistic diversity.

6.2 Participants at the Inter-American Languages Management Seminar invite the States and governments of the Americas, as well as the relevant authorities to support the creation of an "international instrument" that ensures the right of States and governments to freely develop their linguistic and cultural policies and to take measures that contribute to it.

7^th Resolution

linguistic policies aimed at protecting consumers

7.1 Participants at the Inter-American Languages Management Seminar invite the States and governments of the Americas to ensure that companies trading on the continent systematically provide consumers information on goods and services in the official language(s) of each State in which the product or service is offered; and in the case of e-commerce, that they are provided in at least the four official languages (English, Spanish, French and Portuguese) of inter-American supranational organizations.

7.2 Participants at the Inter-American Languages Management Seminar invite States and governments to ensure that, for contractual documents, merchants and intermediaries respect the linguistic rights of consumers in each of the states.

7.3 Participants at the Inter-American Languages Management Seminar invite States and governments to ensure that necessary resources are available and to develop partnerships so that a terminology databank in at least the four official languages of inter-American supranational organizations can be made available to the public, to companies and to intergovernmental organizations that are devoted to developing inter-American trade.

7.4 Participants at the Inter-American Languages Management Seminar invite States and governments to give preference, especially during public tenders, to the supply of communication and electronic computer products and services that take the linguistic diversity of the Americas into account in their design.

PARAGUAYAN DELAGATION PROPOSAL

Further to the invitation of Mrs Blanca Margarita Ovelar de Duarte, Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Paraguay, the Paraguayan delegation proposes that the second languages management seminar be held in Asuncion (Paraguay), in 2003, during Paraguay’s mandate at the presidency of MERCOSUR.

[1] Comisión Panamericana of Normas Técnicas.

[2] Sistema Inter-Americano de Metrología.

[3] Inter-American Accreditation Cooperation.