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PEN CENTENARY YEAR

Translation and Linguistic Rights Committee Annual Meeting 2021 Online

 

100 years, hundreds of voices

 Representing more languages than ever

 

 

25-26 June (Friday-Saturday)

 

This meeting takes place as we celebrate PEN International’s Centenary and the 25th anniversary of theUniversal Declaration of Linguistic Rights in 1996 – the latter of which led to the conception of the GironaManifest in 2011 and was key in the development of the Donostia Protocol in 2016.

 

During the meeting, we will discuss and adopt of TLRC Strategic Plan for the next years and look at the draft of theLinguistic Rights Reports, currently in progress. The importance of linguistic rights, translations, literaryproduction, cultural empowerment, and collaboration within your community will also be discussed.

 

Day 1

Friday, 25 June 2021

 

14:00 BST (London time)– Empty Chair #1 Rwanda – Innocent Bahati

 

14:05 – “The TLRC Committee’s History in the context of PEN Centenary”

 

Why did PEN decide to unite Translation and Linguistic Rights (TLRC)? Quechua, Pangasinan, Tumbuka,Inuit... what programs have been implemented on the ground by PEN Centres to promote all literatures? From theUniversal Declaration of Linguistic Rights to the Quebec Declaration on Translation and Translators and the inclusion of writers in indigenous languages, a long path has been walked since the creation of the TLRC in 1978.

 

Historical introduction by Carles Torner (PEN International)

 

Regional overviews by:

Nina Jaramillo (PEN Argentina), Marita Banda (PEN Zambia) Santiago Villafania (PEN Philippines), LouisJolicoeur (PEN Quebec)

 

Moderated by: Carles Torner, PEN International Centenary Director

 

15:00 – 15:55 – PUBLIC PANEL: TOWARDS THE RESPECT AND EQUALITY OF LANGUAGES

In recognition of the 25th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights

 

Empty Chair #2 China Xinjiang – Rahile Dawut

 

It is now 25 years since the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights was adopted in Barcelona. The Declarationwas a milestone in the work to support minority languages and its speakers and led to other updated actionssuch as the adoption of the Donostia Protocol to Ensure Linguistic Rights. Since then, while the world has beenlosing languages every year, a greater level of commitment and self- consciousness has also been achieved bylocal and international actors.

 

Isidor Marí, chair of the Scientific Council of the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights

Tsering Tsomo, director of the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy

Simona Skrabec, chair of the TLRC of PEN International 2014-2020, author of PEN’s report

Culture’s Oxygen

 

Moderated by Paul Bilbao, General Secretary of Kontseilua, in charge of Donostia Protocol to Ensure LanguageRights (Basque PEN)

 

16:00 – LINGUISTIC RIGHTS REPORT presentation

 

PEN International’s TLRC is producing a report on the challenges to linguistic rights

worldwide, with a special focus on few cases in Latin America. In the context of PEN

International’s Centenary, we are integrating the topic of indigenous rights from a linguistic perspective. We willpresent the key findings and recommendations from the report and discuss these during the meeting.

 

Igor Xoyon, Principal at Nimalaj Kaqchikel Amaq’ (Kaqchikel immersion program) in

Guatemala

Enrique Pérez, Tsotsil writer, researcher and translator. He is the Paxon of the K'in tajimol of Chenalhó andCELALI of Chiapas

Maialen Sobrino, writer, translator and activist in Garabide – grassroots organization for the revitalization of indigenous languages

Paul Bilbao, General secretary of Kontseilua, promotor of the Donostia Protocol to Ensure Linguistic Rights

 

Moderated: by Urtzi Urrutikoetxea, TLRC Chair, Basque PEN

 

Day 2

Saturday, 26 June 2021

 

14:00 – Empty Chair #3 India – Varavara Rao

 

14:05 – TLRC Chair report by Urtzi Urrutikoetxea (PEN Basque)

Q&A session

 

14:25 – Discussion on Linguistic Rights report 15:00 – Strategic planning & Committee business

• Presentation and discussion of TLRC Strategic Planning for the next years. The former TLRC ChairSimona Skrabec established a firm ground to develop the planning.

• Commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the approval of Spanish as the third working language ofPEN International, after 75 years in which only French and English were official. It was a milestone thathas allowed hundreds of writers from more than 15 centers to participate and meet around PEN, and hasbrought PEN's work closer to Latin America.

• Presentation of the Declaration on Respecting Macedonian Linguistic, Cultural, and Identity Right and indefence of the Macedonian right to self-determination, by PEN Macedonia Katica Kuvlakova

• Proposal of Kurdish PEN to establish a group within the TLRC to work for the implementation of theGirona manifesto in countries like Turkey that ban most of the concepts mentioned in the manifesto. Thisgroup along with centres concerned would work to find means and resources to take necessary steps toappeal for the implementation of Girona Manifesto's articles.

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• 16:00 – Centre updates – based on regional approach with focus on translation issues. 3 mins per Centre

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• 18:00 – Closing of the meeting