PEN International Assembly approves the Girona Manifesto and calls for protection and promotion of linguistic diversity.

PRESS RELEASE-----------------------------------

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
15th September 2011

PEN International Assembly approves the Girona Manifesto and calls for protection and promotion of linguistic diversity.

Today at PEN International’s 77th annual Congress the PEN General Assembly approved the Girona Manifesto which calls for the protection and promotion of linguistic diversity.  This Manifesto developed by PEN’s Translation and Linguistic Rights Committee is a significant step toward protecting and promoting all world languages, including those in danger of disappearing.

John Ralston Saul, International President of PEN said, “Many languages are in danger. Many are actually disappearing. The loss of one's language, and through that loss much of one's culture, can be seen as the ultimate removal of freedom of expression“.

The Girona Manifesto is a ten point document designed to be translated and disseminated widely as a tool to defend linguistic diversity around the world.

Josep Maria Terricabras, Chair of the Translations and Linguistic Rights Committee of PEN International said, “Language defines us.  To lose one’s language is to lose one’s voice, identity and spirit.  Languages are the homes we live in“

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14th September 2011
Hundreds of writers, editors, translators and publishers from across the globe celebrate the achievement of 2010 Nobel Prizes by Mario Vargas Llosa and Liu Xiaobo and call for the release of Xiaobo and his wife.
At PEN International's 77th annual Congress in Belgrade today, delegates from over 80 PEN Centres worldwide unanimously passed a motion to congratulate Mario Vargas Llosa, former PEN International President and 2010 Nobel Laureate for Literature, and Liu Xiaobo, founding president of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre and 2010 Nobel Laureate for Peace. John Ralston Saul, PEN International President, said: "we follow the model of writers like Mario Vargas Llosa and Liu Xiaobo. They are illustrations of PEN International's indivisible commitment to both literature and freedom of speech."
PEN members also took the opportunity to use their collective voice and call on the Chinese authorities: "We seize on this historic moment to call for the release from prison of Liu Xiaobo and the release from house arrest of this wife, Liu Xia."
Liu Xiaobo, the prominent Chinese dissident writer who was sentenced to 11 years in prison in December 2009, was the founder and first president of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre. He has since been made honorary member of nine PEN Centres. Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in absentia in 2010. Marian Botsford Fraser, Chair of the Writers in Prison PEN Committee, attended the award ceremony. "Members of the PEN community were honoured to attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo last December," said Botsford Fraser. "But not a single member of Liu's family or anyone from mainland China was allowed to attend, and the award was laid upon an empty chair. The PEN community will continue to fight for the unconditional release of our colleague, Liu Xiaobo."

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Notes to editors:

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