Brief history of International Mother Language Day (IMLD)

To love, observe and conserve all mother languages of the world, the pioneer late Mr. Rafiqul Islam (1950-2013) coined the day 21st February as International Mother Language Day (IMLD), because on that day a group of Bangalee people sacrificed their lives for their mother language during the Bangla Language Movement in 1952.

To respect and celebrate all mother languages, Mr Islam first proposed to UNESCO to declare the day 21st February as IMLD. In 1999, with the help of Banladesh and along with 29 countries including Canada, the UNESCO eventually proclaim the day as IMLD. Since 2000, the day is being celebrated globally to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity. Mr. Rafiqul Islam is called the Father of IMLD. He was a Bangaldeshi Canadian used to live in Surrey, BC; a Freedom Fighter during the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971 and the Founding President of Mother Language Lovers Of The World Society, BC.

On 9th January 1998, Mr. Rafiqul Islam wrote a letter to Mr. Kofi Annan requesting him to take a step for saving all mother languages around the world from the possibility of extinction and to proclaim the IMLD. On 23rd January, on behalf of Secretary General Kofi Annan, Mr. Hasan Ferdous, Officer-in-Charge, Public Inquiries Unit, Department of Public Information first responded and advised Mr. Rafiq to propose the issue from any member country of the United Nations.

At this point Mr. Rafiqul Islam and his colleague Mr. Abdus Salam founded an organization called, the “Mother Language Lovers of the World” with a group of various mother language speakers and from that organization they wrote to Mr. Kofi Annan for the second time on March 29, 1998.

On 8th April 1998, Ms. Anna Maria Majlof, Programme Specialist, Languages Division (ED), provided the addresses of the National Commissions for UNESCO for five member countries (Canada, India, Hungary, Finland and Bangladesh) and advised Mr. Rafiqul Islam to place the request formally from those countries.

Ms. Maria also noted that the proposal for the declaration of an “International Day” must imperatively be submitted to UNESCO’s Executive Board for adoption, which meets twice a year. The document, if adopted, will then be presented to UNESCO’s General Conference will take place at UNESCO HQ this year in November/December.

On 16th August 1999, the Hungerian National Commissions for UNESCO for the first time responded and replied back to UNESCO Paris and supported the idea of declaring 21st February as IMLD. On 9th September 1999, the Bangladesh National Commissions for UNESCO faxed the supporting proposal to the UNESCO Paris, that was the last day of submitting the proposal to UNESCO for the 30th Annual General Conference. Meanwhile, 29 countries were able to support the proposal to table the issue in the AGM.

On 16th November 1999, the proposal was placed as an agenda in the AGM. On 17th November 1999, the proposal was raised in the AGM, supported by 188 countries, not opposed by a single country, and passed as a decision.