PRESS RELEASE – FROM February 25th to 27th, the Msgr. Patrick Anthony Folk Research Centre will host a conference with the World Association of Christian Communicators (WACC Global). WACC Global is convening a meeting of its project partners across the Caribbean to reflect on the intersections between communication rights, cultural and linguistic diversity, and sustainable development. Delegates will come from the English, Dutch, Spanish and Creole speaking countries of the Caribbean. The WACC Global team will be led by the General Secretary Dr Philip Lee.
The aim of WACC-FRC meeting is to enable its project partners to engage in knowledge exchange and to work together to help advance of communication rights. According to the WACC Global paper on the conference “The United Nations declared 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages in order to raise awareness about the importance of linguistic diversity in relation to sustainable development, culture, knowledge, and collective memory. WACC applauds this recognition on the part of the United Nations as it believes that people’s ability to communicate in their own language is one of the cornerstones of communication rights. WACC believes that unless people are able to use their own language to access media content, share knowledge and information, and have their voices heard, it is unrealistic to expect that they will be able to meaningfully engage in decision making and in processes of social change.”
WACC’s regional association in the Caribbean, WACC Caribe, will be holding its regional assembly immediately following the WACC Partners Consultation. WACC previously held a project-partners conference in Saint Lucia, in 2012.