On World Portuguese Language Day, UN boss hails language’s importance
António Guterres marked the UN-recognised Day, which is celebrated annually on May 5, highlighting the current "context of complex challenges" and the "global importance" of the Portuguese language.
The secretary-general of the United Nations, António Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal, has on World Portuguese Language Day highlighted the “global importance” of the Portuguese language and called for action to combat the spread of false information and the participation of women and young people in decision-making processes.
António Guterres marked the UN-recognised Day, which is celebrated annually on May 5, with a video released the day before, in which he highlighted the current “context of complex challenges”.
The UN chief said that the spread of disinformation is one of the problems that will have to be countered by the role of all languages “in the mobilisation and dissemination of knowledge and credible and verified information” – with this particularly necessary in Portuguese.
“The richness of a language is measured by its diversity and the inclusion of its voices,” Guterres added, recommending “the full, meaningful and effective participation of women and young people in all decision-making processes.”
This inclusion “will be the only way” to ensure successes, “meet the challenges of the present” and “rebuild better,” he said.
In an official video from UNESCO, the UN’s agency for education, science and culture, to commemorate World Portuguese Language Day, the Portuguese language was said to “a plural language” of richness and diversity, an inclusive language, of dialogue and cooperation.
In a separate video, UNESCO’s assistant director-general for culture, Ernesto Ottone Ramírez, described Portuguese as “a language of encounters, on land and in the ocean.”
According to UNESCO, there are more than 265 million Portuguese speakers worldwide.
Guterres’s message, which was published by the UN online agency UN News, began with congratulations to the Community of Portuguese-Language Countries (CPLP), which has nine full members. He said that the Day is “an example of what the CPLP has been able to achieve in the year it will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its creation.”
He also said that Portuguese is an excellent way “to reach vast strata of the population spread across all continents.
“This World Day is a fair recognition of the global relevance of the Portuguese language,” he said. “I am confident that its future will continue to be enriched by the diversity and solidarity of all its voices.”
The statements by UN officials come at a time when Portugal and other Portuguese-language countries, such as Brazil, have restated their interest in adding Portuguese to the roster of official languages at the UN, which currently has six: Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, French, English and Russian.
According to UN News, of the more than 150 activities expected to take place to mark World Portuguese Language Day in over 40 countries, the celebrations at the UN will be led by Cabo Verde, which holds the rotating presidency of the CPLP.
The term of Cabo Verde’s permanent representative to the UN, José Luís Rocha, is to end on May 30.
