International Day of Sign Languages: History, Theme, and Significance
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International Day of Sign Languages is observed every year on 23 September. It is a United Nations-sanctioned holiday observed annually on 23 September. It is observed every year along with International Week of the Deaf. The choice of 23 September is the same date that the World Federation of the Deaf was established in 1951. There is numerous day which is related to the International Day of Sign Languages. On a similar theme, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities is observed on 3 December.
Theme of International Day of Sign Languages – 2022
The UN General Assembly has proclaimed 23 September as the International Day of Sign Languages in order to raise awareness of the importance of sign language in the full realization of the human rights of people who are deaf. The theme for the 2022 International Day of Sign languages is “Sign Languages Unite Us“.
History of International Day of Sign Languages
The proposal for the Day came from the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD), a federation of 135 national associations of deaf people, representing approximately 70 million deaf people’s human rights worldwide. The resolution A/RES/72/161 was sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Antigua and Barbuda to the United Nations, co-sponsored by 97 United Nations Member States and adopted by consensus on 19 December 2017.
The choice of 23 September commemorates the date that the WFD was established in 1951. This day marks the birth of an advocacy organisation, which has as one of its main goals, the preservation of sign languages and deaf culture as pre-requisites to the realisation of the human rights of deaf people.
The International Day of Sign Languages was first celebrated in 2018 as part of the International Week of the Deaf. The International Week of the Deaf was first celebrated in September 1958 and has since evolved into a global movement of deaf unity and concerted advocacy to raise awareness of the issues deaf people face in their everyday lives.
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