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Amrapaali / January 2015
NEWSTREK
WORLD ARABIC LANGUAGE DAY
The UNESCO declared December 18 as the World Arabic
Language Day. The organizing ceremonies were attended by
specialists of international repute, researchers and representatives
of UNESCO member states.
The core theme of this year’s was Arabic calligraphy and its
impact on human history. The decision was made by the
International Advisory Board of the Plan for the Development of
Arab Culture ‘Arabia Plan’, at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.
Photo courtesy: UNESCO site
The
Consultative
Committee
of
UNESCO’s Arabia Plan initiated World
Arabic Language Day on October 23rd,
inculcating the core idea to make
understand the Arab culture globally.
Moreover,
this
specific
day
was
celebrated for the first time in 2012 and
was declared by UNESCO’s Executive
Board on its 190th session. The initiative
seeks to promote multilingualism and
cultural diversity, as well as celebrate
Arabic
language’s
role
in
and
contribution to the safeguarding and
dissemination of human civilization and
culture.
On this occasion, H.E. Ziad Al – Dress,
the Chairman of the Consultative
Committee of UNESCO’s Arabia Plan and
Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia to UNESCO expressed in a press
release that, celebration of such a day by
UNESCO is indeed a vital gesture
towards various aspects of Arabic
language. He further added that, the
main focus of World Arabic Language
Day this year will be “the role of the
media in strengthening the Arabic
language”. Top media professionals,
experts,
linguists,
diplomats
and
researchers, hailing from the Arab region
and also globally, will attend a series of
seminars devoted to this subject at
UNESCO headquarters on 18 December.
In 2012, it was mentioned that the World
Arabic Language Day is an opportunity to
celebrate the language of 22 Member
States of UNESCO, a language with more
than 422 million speakers in the Arab
world and used by more than 1.5 billion
Muslims.
18th December is selected on the basis as
Arabic language being nominated by the
UN General Assembly as the sixth official
language
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