The International Conference on Language Rights and Policy in the Creole-Speaking Caribbean takes on January 13 -14, 2011. Speaking at the Opening Ceremony slated for Thursday, January 13 at the Mona Visitors’ Lodge and Conference Centre are the Governors General of St. Lucia and Belize, Her Excellency Dame Pearlette Louisy and His Excellency Sir Colville Young  respectively. Also sharing during the Conference are the Minister of Justice of Trinidad & Tobago, Dr. Zellyne Jennings-Craig, Director, School of Education, Professor Lawrence Carrington, Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana,  Professor John Baugh, African American linguist among others.   As part of the Conference, it is hoped that a Charter on Language Rights and Language Policy for the region will be created. This Charter will provide a truly regional process for resolving the language problems of the Creole-Speaking Caribbean. 

The aim of the conference is to arrive at an agreement on the final wording of the Charter.  The proceedings of the conference will include a review of the developments in language policy and practice in the region over the past 50 years. The Conference concludes with a Public Forum at the Knutsford Court Hotel on Friday, January 14 at 4 pm during which the draft Charter will be presented and explained to the citizens of the Creole-speaking Caribbean.  Once agreed on at the conference, the Charter will be submitted to the governments of the Creole-speaking Caribbean for signing.  Civil society groups across the region will be asked to sign on to the Charter as a means of raising public consciousness about the language rights of the Caribbean citizens. 

The importance of this Conference is rooted in the fact that there are multiple languages spoken in the Caribbean and there is no Caribbean-wide consensus on how this region’s linguistic complexity should be handled. There are 35 Creole languages spoken in the Caribbean.  Alongside these languages are spoken some 15 indigenous languages, 4 European languages and perhaps a dozen immigrant/heritage languages.  Language debates and conflict abound within almost every country within the region. 

The draft charter to be considered at the conference is the product of intense debate and discussion by a team of 30 international experts on Caribbean languages and their roles in education, the law and culture. The Conference is organized by the Jamaican Language Unit in the Department of language, Linguistics and Philosophy, UWI, Mona.