Language policy
Body of practices intended to cause a desired change in language
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| February 2025 |
Legal recognition of sign languages
Sign Language Bill introduced in Northern Ireland, uniquely designed to recognize both British Sign Language (BSL) and Irish Sign Language (ISL).
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| 2024 |
Legal recognition of sign languages
Andy Burnham, as a candidate for Mayor of Greater Manchester, pledged to require British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation on live streams of all Greater Manchester Combined Authority meetings.
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| 2024 |
Legal recognition of sign languages
Minister for Communities proposed increasing interpreter numbers and announced plans for a Sign Language Bill.
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| 2023 |
Legal recognition of sign languages
Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, signed the British Deaf Association's Charter for British Sign Language to address discrimination, empower deaf communities, and improve relationships between public sector organisations and Deaf communities.
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| 2023 |
Legal recognition of sign languages
Argentine Sign Language was officially recognized by the government of Argentina, granting legal status to the language used by the deaf community in the country.
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| July 19 2023 |
Legal recognition of sign languages
The bill was signed into law, officially recognizing South African Sign Language as an official language.
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| May 2023 |
Legal recognition of sign languages
The bill to recognize SASL as an official language was voted on by parliament.
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| July 2022 |
Official languages of the United Nations
UN Swahili Language Day is created, making Portuguese and Swahili the only non-official UN languages with a dedicated language day.
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| June 2022 |
Official languages of the United Nations
UN General Assembly adopts resolution encouraging use of non-official languages like Bengali, Hindi, Persian, Portuguese, Swahili, and Urdu.
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| May 2022 |
Legal recognition of sign languages
The 18th Constitutional Amendment Bill to make SASL an official language was published for public comment.
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| April 28 2022 |
Legal recognition of sign languages
The British Sign Language Act 2022 was given royal assent, recognizing BSL as a language of England, Scotland, and Wales, and creating a duty for UK government and public bodies to promote its use.
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| February 2022 | Russian invasion of Ukraine begins, significantly accelerating the derussification process across the country. |
| May 19 2021 |
Legal recognition of sign languages
Italian Sign Language (LIS) was officially legally recognized as a language in Italy, marking a significant milestone for the deaf community despite previous arguments against its linguistic status.
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| 2020 |
Legal recognition of sign languages
Dutch Sign Language (NGT) was officially recognised by law in the Netherlands.
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| 2020 |
Official languages of the United Nations
UN Portuguese Language Day is created.
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| 2019 |
Legal recognition of sign languages
Taiwanese Sign Language was officially recognized as a national language of Taiwan through the National Languages Act, marking a significant milestone in the legal recognition of sign language in the country.
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| 2019 |
Legal recognition of sign languages
The Parliament of the German-speaking Community legally recognized German Sign Language, granting official status to the language within their jurisdiction.
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| September 2019 |
Legal recognition of sign languages
MP Attje Kuiken (Labour Party) took over the bill after Van Laar's departure, and MP Jessica van Eijs (Democrats 66) joined the efforts to recognise NGT.
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| June 21 2019 |
Legal recognition of sign languages
The Accessible Canada Act was passed, recognising ASL, Quebec Sign Language, and Indigenous sign languages as primary communication languages for deaf persons in Canada.
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| 2018 |
Legal recognition of sign languages
A UN report highlighted the expanded services for sign language users in Russia, noting that individuals can receive between 40 and 240 hours of free interpretation annually after the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
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| 2018 |
Legal recognition of sign languages
Luxembourg legally recognized German Sign Language, granting children the right to education in sign language at both primary and secondary school levels. Additionally, family members were given the right to access up to 100 hours of sign language courses.
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| 2018 |
Official languages of the United Nations
UN news and media website begins including translations in Hindi, Portuguese, and Swahili.
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| 2017 |
Legal recognition of sign languages
Free State passed the Use of Official Languages Act, recognizing SASL as a language for provincial services.
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| 2016 |
Legal recognition of sign languages
Gauteng passed the Provincial Languages Act, recognizing SASL as a language for provincial services.
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| October 2016 |
Legal recognition of sign languages
MPs Roelof van Laar (Labour Party) and Carla Dik-Faber (Christian Union) proposed a bill to legally recognise Dutch Sign Language (NGT) as an official language.
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| 2015 |
Legal recognition of sign languages
North West passed the Provincial Languages Act, recognizing SASL as a language for provincial services.
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| 2015 |
Official languages of the United Nations
Nepal's Vice President Parmananda Jha publicly expressed strong support for including Hindi as an official language of the UN.
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| 2014 |
Legal recognition of sign languages
Mpumalanga passed the Provincial Languages Act, recognizing SASL as a language for provincial services.
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| 2013 |
Legal recognition of sign languages
Northern Cape passed the Use of Official Languages Act, specifically recognizing SASL as a language for provincial services.
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| 2012 |
Legal recognition of sign languages
Russian Sign Language officially gained legal recognition through the federal Law on Protection of People with Disabilities, marking a significant milestone for sign language rights in Russia.
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| September 2011 |
Official languages of the United Nations
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and proposed adding Turkish as an official language of the United Nations.
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| July 19 2011 |
Official languages of the United Nations
General Assembly adopts Resolution A/RES/65/311 on multilingualism, calling for equal working conditions and resources for all six official languages.
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| 2010 |
Legal recognition of sign languages
The Christian Union party initially introduced a bill to recognise Dutch Sign Language (NGT), but the bill did not pass.
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| 2010 |
Official languages of the United Nations
UN's Department of Public Information announced an initiative of six 'language days' to celebrate linguistic diversity and cross-cultural communication.
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This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles Derussification, Official languages of the United Nations, Legal recognition of sign languages & Magyarization, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.